O Rise, Rapture, Rise
by TeaDanceMacabre
Summary: Several girls are being abducted along the coastlines and police can't find any evidence or leads that could help. The case is handed to L who is busy working on the Kira investigation and determined that the Kira case is more important than anything else
1. The Great Chain

**Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or Bioshock. This contains spoilers so if you haven't completed Bioshock would you kindly finish it before reading. Mwuhahaha... Yeah sorry.**

**P.S. To avoid all the sickly sweet begs for reviews with each chapter I'm just going to put a big one here: Reviews make me smile like L in a Harry Potter-themed candy store. If you think you're reviewing too much then... review some more ^^**

**Phew, glad that's over with. On with the story...  
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_I believe in no God, no invisible man in the sky. But there is something more powerful than each of us, a combination of our efforts, a Great Chain of industry that unites us. But it is only when we struggle in our own interest that the chain pulls society in the right direction. The chain is too powerful and too mysterious for any government to guide. Any man who tells you different either has his hand in your pocket, or a pistol to your neck. - Andrew Ryan._

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"L, another case has come up." A voice said over a laptop. A hunched detective stood alone in a hotel room in Japan, staring out of the window. He reluctantly broke off his deep thought process and turned towards the laptop, pushing a button on the microphone. Watari was alone – there was no need to alter his voice.

"What is it, Watari?" The detective known as L sighed. Watari was stuck in traffic – the hotel cake wasn't sweet enough for L and both he and the hotel had run out of sugar cubes.

"There have been several reports of young girls being kidnapped. I'll send you the information."

L took his finger away from the microphone and sat on the chair with his hands resting on his knees in the position he had to sit in so that his deductive abilities would not be lowered forty percent. He picked a strawberry up with his thumb and forefinger and dropped it into his mouth as the information popped up onto the screen of his laptop.

There was no lead on the Kira case, he had run out of sugar and now he was being sent details of what must surely be a minor case. It wasn't uncommon that children were kidnapped. There were approximately 790,000 lost children reported missing every year. Only 4.1% of those cases were non-family abductions. Cases of abducted children were also known to be highly emotional ones due to families getting involved with the public and were often made to seem much more difficult and serious than they actually were. Therefore, L concluded it was not more important than the Kira case which demanded every ounce of his abilities. Even if he had not been working on the Kira case, getting involved in a missing person case was something he would usually only do if he was bored or someone important had been abducted.

Still, he licked his fingers and skim-read the details. It took him only seconds to take in all the information Watari had sent him. His eyes darted ahead, to the television screens in front of him. Each television was playing a different news broadcast and a new criminal had just died of a heart attack.

L jumped up, immediately abandoning his laptop and turning the volume up. He made a note of the time, what the criminal had been convicted for and other vital details. Kira was posing a challenge to him and he couldn't back down. His ego wouldn't allow it.

Just over half an hour later, Watari returned with several different forms of glucose, improving L's mood greatly. Watari was silent as L worked on trying to narrow down the amount of suspects he had, his eyes occasionally flitting to the screens as he made a note of criminals and their crimes. Kira was likely watching one of these broadcasts.

"Ryuzaki, have you decided whether or not to accept the missing girl case? At least six girls have been kidnapped along the coastlines, all of them –"

"I know – I read the information and concluded that it is not as important as the Kira case."

"It has been labelled difficulty level L."

"Yes, but that is still not as difficult as the case I'm working on now. This case requires my full attention and the abduction case doesn't interest me."

Watari paused for a moment. "Several police agencies have requested your assistance in this case."

L pressed his thumb against his lip. Watari was clearly concerned by the case and planning on making him feel guilty. He could understand – the majority of people became more emotionally involved in a case if it involved children. Watari had never argued against his decisions before so it was obvious that the information was bothering him.

"Do you have a personal interest in this case Watari?" L asked, his head lolling to one side.

"Not at all, Ryuzaki. I just believe it cannot be solved without assistance. Innocent lives are at stake and there is a connection between all the cases so it is reasonable to believe that there may be more."

Picking up a spoon, L used the edge to slice though a piece of cake and shovelled it into his mouth as he thought, pushing the Kira case to one side. He swallowed and moved to cut another piece when a sweet smile spread across his face that could melt hearts.

"Near, Mello and Matt. They are the three people in line as my successors, is this correct?" He asked, although he knew it was, unless someone had overtaken them and Watari had not informed him.

"That is right."

"Have Roger send them this information… No. In fact, I want to speak to them directly. Can you arrange for that?"

"I'll call Roger now." Watari replied, a small smile glowing on his face. The relief L felt upon pushing all thoughts of the Kira case away was blissful, as though a heavy burden had been lifted from him. He knew that within an hour he would have to resume the investigation. He wasn't accustomed to taking breaks so he didn't know how to feel about the luxury.

"Roger, can you please get Near, Mello and Matt for me? …I understand, but you will have to wake them up. L wants to speak to them directly. You can use the laptop. L will set up a connection in five minutes." Watari instructed before hanging up. L's fingers pressed keys at a lightening speed through years of practise. He had designed the firewall protecting the connection at Wammy's House himself. Even though he knew how to get past it, he had designed it so thoroughly that it took several minutes to break through. He set up an audio and visual connection, put his famous letter 'L' on the screen and enabled them to hear audio as well. He reluctantly muted the news broadcasts, but instructed Watari to keep a close eye on them for his own peace of mind.

A few moments later, the three in line to succeed him stumbled groggily into the room, their eyes widening slightly when they saw the screen.

"L?" Matt asked, his red hair sticking up at random angles. Mello rubbed his eyes and Near stared blankly at the screen.

"As you know, I am working on the Kira case. Another unsolvable case has come up but I have concluded that the Kira case is more important although there is a chance that this case won't be solved without additional help. I would like the three of you to work together on the case. I'll send you the information via this laptop. Roger will set up an office for the three of you with adequate resources and connections to relevant information and you will have certain privileges, one being that you no longer need to attend class while working on this case."

Mello was utterly shocked, his features frozen. Matt's body was almost shaking with excitement and Near's eyes were bright with innocent anticipation. L smiled almost warmly. He was particularly fond of the three before him. Perhaps due to some buried paternal instinct or simply a degree of trust, since he trusted less than a handful of people.

"Cool." Matt grinned.

"Everything will be set up for you to begin work tomorrow." Roger told them, looking weary. "Although I _was_ planning on getting some sleep myself tonight…" He murmured.

"If you need assistance, Roger has the means to contact me." L said. The determined look in Mello's and Near's eyes told him that they would never resort to asking for help and the glint in Matt's eyes told him that Matt thought it would be quicker to hack the connection himself. L tilted his head to one side, as he brushed his toes against each other. He ended the contact with Wammy's House and pushed the lid of his laptop down, turning the volume back up on all of his screens and reviewing his notes to see if he had missed any important evidence. Watari smiled, satisfied.

L's head was filled with nothing but the Kira case, just as it had been a few hours earlier. At one o'clock in the morning, Watari returned to his own room and fell asleep. L moved back to the window and looked out towards the bright lights. Kira was out there somewhere. The murderer was so close… He was certain.


	2. Impossible Anywhere Else

**Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, Bioshock or any of the girls named here - they belong to the viral website for Bioshock 2. When I was on the site I couldn't get rid of the feeling that L should be investigating the case - hence the inspiration for this story. All chapters are named after the audio diaries found around Rapture.

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_To build a city at the bottom of the sea! Insanity. But where else could we be free from the clutching hand of the Parasites? Where else could we build an economy that they would not try to control, a society that they would not try to destroy? It was not impossible to build Rapture at the bottom of the sea. It was impossible to build it anywhere else. - Andrew Ryan_

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"The first thing we need to do is find a connection." Near noted. The three boys were sat on the floor, huddled around a bunch of photographs. "They are spread around a large area."

"But always along the North Atlantic coastline." Mello noted, taking a bite from his chocolate bar. "Mary Elizabeth, 5 years old. The windowpane was cut with extreme precision and it appeared as though a red lamp was attached to the kidnapper's head."

"Ulrike, 7 years old. A window was smashed with a sharpened tool and the kidnapper was carrying a red torch…" Matt added as they took turns reading an article. They all caught each others eye, noting the connection between the red lights.

"Camille, 6 years old. No witnesses." Near said, putting the newspaper cutting onto a pile on ones they had already read.

"Chantal, 6 years old. Kidnapped by a skinny monster with a red glowing eye. Crashed through a third-story window." Mello said, shifting into a more comfortable position.

"Elena Rodrigues, 6 years old. A broken window suggests forced entry."

"Jennifer, 5 years old. Kidnapper ran away carrying a red torch. Large boot prints on the sand." Near said, putting down the last article.

"We need to research the red light." Mello noted, as Matt volunteered. "I'll contact the families and try to see if we can get any more information or find more witnesses."

"I'll search for other cases we might not know about and see if there are any other connections." Near said, moving over to the computer chair as Mello grabbed a mobile phone.

_Three days later…_

"Is this a joke? These people are describing weapons that don't even exist." He complained, biting his chocolate bar ferociously. "Most of them are describing some sort of strange robot. It's ridiculous."

"Look at this." Near replied, and Mello and Matt moved over to him. "Maura, 7 years old. The unknown attacker raced out of the window with 'incredible speed'. The girl's father attempted to pursue but was outrun, even though the kidnapper should have been slowed down by the girl's weight. It's reasonable to assume that someone chasing after their daughter would have an adrenaline rush and run at full speed. The attacker was thin, above average height and wearing a red light that seemed to come from its head. I find it difficult to believe that it would have been easy to outrun the girl's father whilst carrying the girl."

"This doesn't make sense." Mello complained, kicking a chair.

"I found something out too." Matt said patiently, pulling up photographs and articles onto different screens. "There have been a lot of reports of red light coming from underneath the sea. There's some photographic evidence too. Camille disappeared the same night that red lights were reported in La Rochelle harbour."

"So the kidnappings occur along the coast of different countries surrounding the North Atlantic Ocean, the kidnapper always has a red light and there have been reports of red lights underneath the ocean around the time that the kidnappings take place." Near summed up as Mello phoned another number. His expression changed rapidly from irritable to serious.

"Can you send the photograph over?" Mello asked. A few moments later he hung up and brought another image up on the screen. It was a strange footprint in the sand. The three of them stared at the image silently, trying to make sense of the situation.

Three weeks later they were back to sitting on the floor in silence, throwing around the same old ideas in the hope of finding a new angle.

"So…" Matt began, trying to find something new to say. "Have you noticed they all look the same?"

"…You're so stupid." Mello complained, not even having the energy to bite a chunk out of his chocolate bar. They were all exhausted. None of them had the will to do anything because the case was such a mystery that they couldn't figure it out. Matt stood up and plodded over to the computers, bringing up an image of a dark-skinned African girl with dreadlocks.

"See? She's around the same age as the others." Matt replied, slumping back onto the floor.

Near and Mello looked at the images of the porcelain-skinned girls again. After looking at the image Matt had brought up, the kidnapped girls looked liked clones. "Fine, you're right but I don't really see the point. Do you have a point Matt?"

"Maybe it's important. They're all between five and seven too. It's like collecting girls of the same type."

"I suppose." Near sighed, laying the pictures out side-by-side. "But if you have no theory then that point doesn't mean anything."

"Okay… A theory…" Matt said, lying on his back. "How about this kidnapper is making a museum… Yeah okay, you don't even need to tell me how stupid that suggestion is."

"I fail to see how their genetic similarity could be important." Near responded. Silence engulfed them again.

…

"Wait!" Mello gasped. "Last year we studied the mystery 'The Vanishing'. Remember? The number of people missing could have been in the thousands. Some really intelligent people vanished without a trace and it couldn't be explained. We looked at the newspaper articles."

"It was likely a movement rather than a conspiracy due to the fact all the missing people had the same ideals. But the girls that have been kidnapped were taken against their will. It's completely different." Near argued.

"Langford, Suchong, Steinman… They were some of the people." Mello continued, ignoring Near's point.

"The only connection is a large number of people disappearing without a trace. That is hardly enough to call a connection."

"Whatever, I'm going to look into it anyway. It's more of a link than Matt pointing out that they all look the same."

"No it isn't because at least Matt's point was relevant to the case and also correct. Yours is neither relevant nor a correct link because a movement and a mass kidnapping are completely different cases."

"Well at least I have a suggestion, Near!" Mello yelled, spinning back on the computer chair to face him. "I don't just sit on the floor looking pale!"

"Ad hominem. You weakened your argument by attacking who I am rather than my point."

"Yeah, I remember the critical thinking lessons, Near. Can you just shut up and do something useful."

"What would you have me do, Mello? Try and solve a completely irrelevant case because the current case is too difficult? Next you'll try and find out who Jack the Ripper was and claim his relative is after revenge."

"Sarcasm doesn't suit you, Near. _You_ try and find a link then, since you're the only one who hasn't come up with a different angle. Matt can work on his museum of similar-looking girls' theory and I'll look into the vanishing case."

Matt had fallen asleep.

"I did come up with a different angle yesterday but you said it was ridiculous." Near replied, picking up the photograph he had found of a strange, hand-made doll that had been found at the edge of the beach. It had what looked like a helmet for a head and some sort of drill for a hand.

"That's because you're obsessed with toys, and a doll on the beach can hardly be considered evidence. It didn't even match the descriptions."

"Mello, you agreed that you have never seen a doll like that before and that the feet could resemble heavy boots and the head could resemble a helmet described by a witness. I don't think it is coincidental that a doll resembling the kidnapper was found near the coast when it is such a unique design."

"It was clearly made by a child."

"Exactly." Near argued, but he knew Mello wouldn't listen. Matt began to snore.

"Your point is only vaguely relevant and vaguely correct. I can't believe Matt has come up with the best suggestion when it was so stupid." Mello mumbled as he licked the edge of his chocolate bar and looked at some old newspaper articles. "There was Dr. Steinman, who could have been the best plastic surgeon in the world. Julie Langford, the famous botanist… Here's another article about a really good plumber that went missing. And Dr. Suchong who was a medical researcher."

"Mello, this is pointless. What would you do with a plumber, botanist, surgeon and…" Suddenly Near jumped up, startling Matt awake. "Mello, who else vanished?"

Mello smiled smugly. "So I'm right."

"I didn't say it had anything to do with the case we're working on now." Near replied as Mello flicked through some other articles. Matt groggily walked over.

"Why are we studying history again?"

"Mello thinks it is somehow relevant to the case." Near answered.

"And Near has noticed that I've found out something interesting so he's just as excited as I am." Mello added.

"'The Vanishing' is an unsolved case. It would be an achievement if we solved it; that is my only interest."

"Whatever." Mello replied, still trying to find more articles. "A business man called Andrew Ryan who was all into… finding 'true rapture' and 'being entitled to the sweat of your brow' and stuff."

"Andrew Ryan's parents were important in the Russian government and got murdered by Communists. He went to Oxford University before moving to America. He believed that people who benefitted from other people were parasites. He disappeared when Hiroshima was destroyed by the Atomic Bomb because he despised the 'parasites' for destroying what they couldn't have." Near added to Mello's explanation, causing Mello to scowl silently.

"What's this got to do with anything?" Matt asked, bored. Mello hadn't allowed him to use his DS since they started working on the case, knowing Matt had a short attention span. Mello turned towards Near, wanting to hear the words from Near's lips. Near stayed silent.

"Don't be shy, Near. Why did you jump up all of a sudden?" Mello prompted. Near sat on a chair next to him and Matt sat down too.

"Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Some of the most basic needs are breathing, water and food. A plumber and botanist could provide those. A successful business man could provide shelter, clothes and sleeping accommodations. All the basic needs could be catered for with just those three people. With those needs satisfied the next important is safety, including health-care. It wasn't just regular plumbers and botanists and surgeons going missing but they were the best in the world. You could essentially create living conditions with those minds alone. Specifically… living conditions in the ocean."

Mello grinned at his own ingenuity and Matt looked disturbed, like someone being convinced that ghosts exist. "So… There's something in the sea."


	3. It's All Grift

_You know what? Art... music... poetry... It's all grift. Cohen's got Ryan wrapped around his lil' pinky... and why? Because he tells him what he wants to hear. 'Rise, Rapture, Rise!' Nuts! That stuff was stale before it came out Cohen's pen. I'm through with the whole pinata. Let's see that old fruit try an' keep me here... - Hector Rodriguez  


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"I think I've managed to pinpoint a location." Matt said, lying on his stomach and doodling on a map. Matt had been in charge of the locations of the kidnappings, lights and likely places to build an underwater city. Mello was in charge of researching valuable people that had gone missing during that time and Near was researching the people they had already found.

"What's wrong, Near? You've been quiet since I mentioned that German woman from the Holocaust."

"I've been reading into Ryan's ideals. The enormity of a movement like this is unthinkable. They couldn't be touched by the law because they completely disappeared. If Ryan was in charge, and I think he was, then his ideals would have been the law along with his punishments. Plus, Matt's theory is bugging me."

"That the girls looked the same?" Mello asked, scrolling through another newspaper article.

"Tenenbaum was a prisoner of war but when the German's discovered her talent for science they put her to work at the age of sixteen. She was a genius. Hitler had ideals of a pure race and Tenenbaum was a genetic scientist. By law, genetic science is restricted because it is morally unacceptable. All the kidnapped girls are genetically similar and between five and seven. There would be no limits because no one would know what she was doing besides people with the same morals as her. She could want the girls for experiments."

"And it sounds like the kidnapper was wearing some sort of diving apparatus." Matt noted.

"I was thinking about this too." Mello said, picking some newspaper articles up from the floor. "I was thinking about how all the weapons described weren't anything I'd heard of and how the kidnapper had outrun the girl's father. It's mentioned the unusual speed in a few articles."

"A surgeon, medical scientist and genetic scientist… If you were free from law and morality, would you experiment on humans?"

"Fundamentally people want power. That Ryan guy doesn't sound like he'd let political correctness hold him back." Matt replied, adding some more detail to the map.

"In the past week there have been two more kidnapping incidents." Near said, looking away from the face of Andrew Ryan to the photographs of girls on the floor. "This means we're dealing with something worse than the Kira case – if we're right."

They looked at each other without speaking, all thinking the same thing. If they were right, they would have to involve L. Mello was the first to turn away.

"The theme of rapture keeps coming up. I think it had significance to Ryan."

"We still don't know if it connects to the case we should be working on." Near pointed out, twisting his hair around his finger.

"It's a logical conclusion. It fits."

"There is nothing logical in assuming that there is an underwater city full of geniuses that are performing genetic experiments on girls and sending an unnaturally fast robot to kidnap them."

Mello simply shrugged. A knock on the door interrupted them.

"What is it Roger?" Mello asked.

Roger entered the room, looking out of breath. "Some information has been retrieved. A poster and vinyl record washed up on the same beach that the doll was found."

"Okay, send us the information." Near ordered, turning back towards the article about Tenenbaum.

Roger left the room and a few minutes later a song filled the room of a woman singing in a shrill voice and two images appeared on the screen.

"_O rise, Rapture, rise…"_

One of the images was the case called Rapture Records.

"It sounds like a national anthem." Matt noted and Mello nodded.

"_To help us crush parasites despised…"_

The other image was something like an invitation. On the front was an arm with the hand positioned in a fist, directed to the sky. 'Welcome to Rapture' was written on the front.

"_A city on Poseidon's floor, A set of ideals we adore…"_

On the back it read, 'You are among a handful of people who have been selected to found a NEW KIND OF CITY built wholly on the principles of: FREE ENTERPRISE, TOTAL INDEPENDENCE, ABSOLUTE CREATIVE FREEDOM. You have been chosen for your drive, ingenuity, creativity and will to choose. Together, the best and brightest of the Earth will build a **new tomorrow** for the human race. Opportunity awaits. The choice is yours.'

"So it's true." Matt said ominously.

"_A philosophy we can all emphasize, So rise, rise r –"_ At that point the record sounded as though it had died. There was a pause and a little girl's voice filled the room. It sounded ghostlike and afraid. _"Daddy? Where are you Daddy? Are you going to come and find me?"_

The three boys stared at each other, each face frozen with disturbed features. Matt broke the silence first. "They're still alive."

"We need to contact L." Near sighed, avoiding the pictures of Tenenbaum and Ryan.

Mello thought for a while, his chocolate bar pressed against his lips. "Let me do the talking." He said, getting up to call Roger.

"I'll do it myself." Matt said, with a smile. "I've always wanted to hack L's connection."

"Don't be stupid Matt. L's connection will be one of the most secure in the world. Someone like you won't be able to hack into it."

"Oh ye of little faith, Mello." Matt grinned, already typing on the computer.

An hour had passed and Near and Mello were sat on the floor, lining the photographs of the girls up again. Matt was humming the tune 'Rise, Rapture, Rise' as he typed faster than L had.

"Matt, _stop_ humming that song!" Mello yelled, throwing an empty chocolate wrapper at him.

"Well, it's stuck in my head." Matt argued, but stopped humming anyway. Near adjusted the arms on his robot. "Hey, how come Near gets his robot if I can't have my DS?"

"He doesn't." Mello replied, snatching the robot away from Near, who looked completely shocked.

"Mello, give it back!" Near shouted, reaching out for it. Mello hid it behind his back.

"No. You shouldn't be playing with toys at a time like this. Besides, I like watching you struggle."

"You're being completely immature, Mello." Near replied, coldly furious.

"_YES!_ I'm through. Pwned Mello." Matt laughed, setting up both webcam and audio for them and L. "Oh look, he's staying in a hotel."

Mello dropped the robot and Near instantly retrieved it, hugging it to his chest. At that point they heard someone walk closer and L crouched on his chair, staring at the screen. "Matt, you hacked my laptop. I'm impressed." He said with a small smile.

Matt opened his mouth to reply but Mello interrupted. "You know, we solved _two_ cases L. But if you want to find out what we know then you have to come here." He demanded, stubbornly folding his arms. L looked slightly taken aback.

"Mello, I'm working on the Kira case. I cannot go back to England."

"This is _more important_ than the Kira case!" Mello argued, angry determination on his face.

"Well, Mello, I think you're being slightly immature." L responded, his smile disappearing.

"L, this _is_ more dangerous than the Kira investigation." Near said, backing Mello up.

"But we won't give you the information unless you come here." Mello added.

L seemed to twitch, looking at something that they couldn't see. "While investigating this case I am risking my life. Abductions are not life endangering cases to solve."

"Well, if we want to rescue the girls then they are." Near murmured.

"L, listen to this." Matt said, playing the vinyl again to Mello's and Near's reluctance. L listened until the end, when the girl spoke.

"There is a high probability that it's a hoax." L replied simply. Mello stood up quickly, his hands balled into fists.

"It isn't a hoax and we're going to find the girls with or without you so I hope you'll be able to live with our blood on your hands."

Near looked quite unnerved by this suggestion. L pressed his thumb against his lip and stared at the three of them and Mello's determined glare. Eventually he sighed. "Fine, I'll come back to England." He replied. He opened his mouth to say something else but thought better of it and broke off their connection.

"L's coming!" Mello grinned happily, nibbling at his chocolate bar.

"Mello, we can't go after them ourselves." Near stated, his eyes still wide with fear.

"Why not? Who would believe us?"

"We have sufficient evidence. To rescue the girls there would have to be a team of trained fighters, we don't know what we might find down there."

"So? I'm curious. We were the ones who solved the case so I want to be the first person to find Rapture. It'll be fine. For all you know it might be better down there than it is up here."

"Then why are they kidnapping girls?" Near asked, his hair wound tightly around his finger.

"Stop worrying." Mello sighed. "Anyway, we need to organise all our information for when L gets here."


	4. Death Penalty In Rapture

_The death penalty in Rapture! Council's in an uproar. Riots in the streets they say! But this is the time for leadership. Action must be taken against the smugglers. Any contact with the surface exposes Rapture to the very Parasites we fled from. A few stretched necks are a small price to pay for our ideals. - Andrew Ryan  


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"It's nice to see you here again L." Roger smiled, shaking the detective's hand.

"Where are they?" L asked. He didn't appreciate being dragged away from Japan because of Mello's stubborn attitude and didn't want to waste time. Something vital could happen while he was in England.

Roger led him towards the office he had prepared, sectioned away from the rest of the children. As L walked into the room he was faced with a mass of screens, the blue-white glow lighting the dull room. Near and Matt were sitting on the floor around a bunch of newspaper clippings and Mello was sitting on a computer chair and beamed as he walked into the room and closed the door behind him. L tried not to smile in response – he wanted to keep their time together an official meeting but being away from people for so long had left him weak to the temptations friendship offered.

He turned back towards the three boys, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. "Well, are you going to explain yourselves?" He hadn't meant it to sound like he was scolding a group of toddlers for playing in the mud and looked away awkwardly.

Mello folded his arms, unimpressed. "Nice to see you too, L."

L sighed and walked over to one of the spare computer chairs, clambering on top of it. "We have to stick to the point, Mello. I don't have a lot of time."

Mello opened his mouth to argue again but Near saved L the trouble of being yelled at by explaining everything they knew so far, occasionally being interrupted by Mello when he felt like Near wasn't giving him enough credit.

L stared slightly wide-eyed, biting absentmindedly on his thumb nail. "I see. So you have concluded that the girls are being kidnapped for genetic experiments."

Matt had felt the need to play the vinyl again to make the mood more serious, leaving everyone with a hollow feeling that was somewhat dampened by the fact Matt had been drumming his fingers to the beat.

"You just like the song, don't you Matt?" Mello asked, frowning.

"Well, it's pretty catchy." He admitted, grabbing the map to hand to L.

"But we can't go ourselves." Near stated. "It's far too dangerous. Some professionally trained people will have to go."

"No way!" Mello yelled, standing up. "We discovered this! I want to see it for myself! I'm not being stuck in class while some FBI agents go snooping around something we did all the hard work for!"

"Mello is right, Near." L replied and both Near and Mello looked and him in complete shock.

"You think we should go there ourselves?" Near asked. "Do you have a reasonable explanation for this?"

"It's quite simple. Present this case to anyone in authority and they will do nothing but laugh. If we want to rescue the girls that have been kidnapped we will have to do so ourselves."

"You want to risk your life so that you won't be laughed at? What about the Kira case?" Near asked, earning a hard glare from Mello.

L looked around as though trying to find something containing sugar and his eyes fell on Mello's chocolate. "You're right, this is more dangerous and important than the Kira case. Performing experiments on young, unwilling children is something I can't allow. Are you going to eat that chocolate bar Mello?"

Mello snapped a piece of for L and hid the rest of the bar in his pocket. L put a chunk in his mouth and swallowed it, deep in thought. "Oh!" He exclaimed, as though just remembering something important. "Of course, you three will have to stay here."

"WHAT?!" Mello yelled, causing L to jump, slip and fall off his chair. He fell onto the floor with a bump and Matt helped him up. L rubbed the elbow he had landed on, completely unfazed.

"I can't allow you to endanger your lives for a case I should have taken on myself. I'm a lot stronger than I look so I shouldn't have much trouble. It's too risky for you to come with me."

"I don't care! You're suck a jerk, L. This is our case, not yours. We have more right to go than you do and I'm quite capable of deciding whether or not I want to risk my own life. You have no right to make that decision for me."

L looked taken aback but considered Mello's argument. They stared at each other in silence for almost a minute, Mello refusing to back down, when L finally looked away. "Fine, if you want to come with me Mello, then you can come."

Mello returned to his seat triumphantly, clicking at a few screens. "So what do we need to take with us?"

"Just food and water." Near sighed in defeat. "Taking too many items will slow us down considerably and it would be too dangerous. We should only take what we really need."

"I agree." L replied. "I'll arrange for Watari to send a helicopter. I have a mobile phone although there is a high chance that I won't be able to get a signal, providing Rapture exists. Mello, I'm allowing you to come on the condition that you think before you act, otherwise you could get us all killed. If we rush ourselves then we will make mistakes."

"Yeah, fine." Mello said dismissively.

"Can we play the vinyl in the helicopter?" Matt asked, grinning.

"Do you really think that's a good idea?"

"Yeah. Because it's like… a theme tune. And we can pretend we're on a deadly mission and stuff. We need to edit the girl off the end though, she sort of ruins the mood."

Mello stared at Matt pityingly but remained silent while he tried to calm himself down. "We _are_ going on a deadly mission. And we don't need a theme tune. And even if we did, it wouldn't be 'O Rise, Rapture, Rise'."

"Whatever. You two go and get the food and stuff, I'll gather up the notes we need." Matt said, picking the list of missing girls up from the floor. L left the room to go and call Watari and Near followed Mello to the canteen.

"So what sort of food do you want?" Mello asked, making conversation to relieve the awkward silence.

"I don't really care. As long as we take something other than chocolate and cake."

"Oh yeah, because you aren't allowed sugar anyway, are you Near?"

"…I don't know what you're talking about Mello." Near said, looking at the floor.

"Yeah, remember? Because you wouldn't stop running everywhere and then you went and yelled at Roger for not buying you enough toys and then when he tried to calm you down you threw a Rubik's cube at him." Mello laughed. Near didn't reply so Mello continued. "Then you got really annoyed because everyone went to bed and you were bored, so you went into Roger's room and made him stay up all night so you could tell him about all the different types of robot you wanted and he kept falling asleep but you kept prodding him awake and then –"

"Yes, I remember Mello." Near said, wishing he would stop talking.

"So what do you want to eat?"

"There is more food here than just cake and chocolate. Just take non-perishables." Near sighed, his finger curling around a strand of hair.

"Okay, I've got all the stuff!" Matt grinned slyly. "And L says he needs a lot of sugar."

They packed as much food as they could fit into the sole bag they had decided to take and Matt carried it onto the helicopter that arrived twenty minutes after L had called Watari. Matt was grinning to himself as he climbed inside. L was sat in the pilot's seat and Mello was staring worriedly out of the window as Near twisted his hair nervously. Within seconds they were in the air, surrounded by a heavy silence.

"…Well, this is a bit tense isn't it?" Matt smiled excitedly. He didn't get a reply. "Do you know what we need?"

Mello looked at Matt from the corner of his eye but other than that, no one showed any sign that they were listening to him. He routed around in the bag with his back to everyone, laughing quietly to himself. A second later, loud music filled the helicopter, causing the other three to jump.

"_O rise, Rapture, rise…"_

Matt grinned, standing up and doing actions along with the song as he mimed the words.

Near and L caught each other's eye, both looking disturbed but Mello simply glared. There was an awkward beat when the song had finished but after two seconds it started again, due to Matt putting it on repeat.

"…I hate you." Mello said, glaring.

"No, you love me Mells." Matt laughed sitting next to Mello. "And you know you secretly wanted to dance too."

Mello looked out of the window and sighed. "Turn it off."

"Can't – it's the theme tune." Matt replied, stretching out and relaxing.

"You know we could die, right?" Mello yelled.

"All the more reason to have fun. Chill out, you're taking this too seriously. Wait… Is that a lighthouse?"

In the distance was a huge tower, with a light on the top and some stairs leading inside. They hovered in the air above it, staring at each other nervously. L explained that the helicopter was built to float on water, so they just had to tie it up outside. The other three nodded sombrely and Matt grabbed the bag. L lowered the helicopter to land and the night was silent except for the ghostly song echoing over the sea.

"_A philosophy we can all emphasize. So rise, rise r– Daddy? Where are you Daddy? Are you going to come and find me?"_


	5. Shouldn't Have Come

_The minute we came here, Masha started screaming, 'Mama! Mama! What is that? What is that!?' I thought she was having some kind of seizure and then I realized... trees... trees! Never saw one before, thought they were monsters. Oh, Sammy, maybe we never should have come to this place... - Mariska Lutz

* * *

_

Mello was the first out of the helicopter. "I swear Matt, if I hear that song one more time I'm going to kill you." Matt stepped out of the helicopter too and opened his mouth to say something, before Mello interrupted him. "I know you're going to quote a line of the song so don't even bother."

Matt smirked and rubbed his hands, moving closer to Mello for body heat. The wind whipped icily around them and Mello got even more irritated as it blew his hair in every direction. "I hope it isn't this cold inside." Matt complained, giving up on rubbing his hands and putting them in his pockets instead.

Lights illuminated the glistening steps that immediately dampened Near's socks. One of the lights flickered, ruining the majestic effect the stone steps were obviously meant to achieve. Instead, it made the whole tower look lonely and abandoned, as though it had once been filled with parties and socially powerful people that had found better places to be. Although the sound of the waves crashing against the stone walls was almost deafening, the atmosphere still felt strangely silent. Perhaps they had thought they would have seen a sign of life or been warned away by someone, rather than it appear as though no one was there.

Still, as L climbed out of the helicopter and tied it to the stuttering lamp they stood outside, each of them reluctant to push open the huge, golden doors – decorated with what appeared to be a heroic-looking man holding the world in his hands. Matt, Near and L were staring at Mello as though expecting him to make the first move.

"You told me not to rush and act without thinking, don't forget. Do I have to wait for you to come up with a plan or can I just open the doors?"

L considered this – perhaps he _should_ come up with a plan. It seemed stupid going in unprepared and he didn't like it, but it was also impossible to make a plan when you didn't have a clue what to expect. "You can open the doors, Mello."

Although Mello felt like hesitating, he didn't show it. Everyone's heart raced as Mello pulled the left door open, revealing nothing but darkness. L had planned ahead and routed in the bag for the bright torch he had packed. He turned it on and the white light illuminated the sea before he directed it into the room. L was the first to walk into the blackness, followed quickly by the others. Near jumped slightly as the door automatically closed behind them, giving him the feeling they were trapped in a bizarre horror film.

There was an echoing pinging noise as two identical lamps turned on, lighting up the room. It gave them all the feeling they were being watched and L put his finger to his lips, searching the room for motion sensors or cameras.

Matt's eyes were immediately drawn upwards to the gigantic statue of a man they all recognised as Andrew Ryan. A red banner hung below him, with huge golden letters.

'No gods or kings. Only Man.'

"I guess we found the right place then." Matt said, seemingly relaxed. Mello, L and Near turned to look at him silently, too tense to answer. Matt looked back up at the banner, as though admiring some artwork in a gallery. "Well that's a philosophy we can all –"

"DON'T quote that fucking song!" Mello yelled, shoving Matt roughly backwards. His voice echoed around the room.

"Mello, can you please try to contain your anger?" L sighed, turning the torch off and returning it to his bag. Matt just snickered.

Near was staring up at the statue of Andrew Ryan, terrified. When he was at the orphanage he never went outside because secretly, he was scared. It was dangerous for L to show his face – Near knew that and so concluded that the most logical thing to do as the first in line to succeed L was to remain indoors. Even if he wasn't afraid to leave the orphanage the atmosphere would have worried him but the fact he'd chosen to go with Mello, Matt and L – although it seemed the best thing to do for many reasons – made him sincerely wish he hadn't come at all, as though he could turn back time and change his decision.

"We shouldn't waste time." L decided, examining the room for a second time. "We don't know if we can be seen from here and it would be best for us to remain undetected for as long as possible."

As they moved quietly down the stairs, more lights juddered to life and something that sounded like elevator music from the 1950s played although they couldn't locate any speakers. At the bottom of the stairs was a huge bathysphere, the door wide open.

L pressed a finger against his lips to signal for silence as they stepped into the method of transport. They each inspected the bathysphere and Near pointed towards a radio on the side of curved wall, next to the door. L picked it up and turned it over in his hands. Even though he located the button he needed to press if he wanted to speak to someone on the other side, he still felt uncomfortable making a sound in case it had been bugged.

Matt admired the control box and then gestured to L using sign language – telling L that he could hack the bathysphere. L sighed quietly, turning the radio over in his hands once again.

He spoke in a whisper. "We should discuss what we intend to do first."

Near sat on the floor as L, Mello and Matt sat on the metal seats that surrounded the walls.

"Our priority is rescuing the girls. It's impossible to tell whether it will be highly populated or scarce but either way we need to be careful and try to remain undetected while we search for them. If the situation arises where we would greatly benefit from splitting up then, no matter the circumstances, we need to focus on what will best preserve our own lives – even if that makes the job more difficult for us. I intend to take all three of you back to the orphanage alive." L told them, looking mostly at Mello.

"I'm on my best behaviour." Mello replied, forcing himself not to roll his eyes. L placed his hands on his knees, tilting his head to one side.

"I suppose delaying it any further when we have no information is just cowardly so you can hack it now, Matt. It could take a few hours anyway."

Matt grinned, walking over to the control lever and admiring it. "That sounds like a challenge. If I can hack this in under an hour then you have to get me the new Zelda game."

L couldn't help but smile as he agreed to the bet. "And if you don't then you have to bake me a cake."

Near twisted his hair agitatedly, wondering how they could think of such trivial things whilst sitting inside the most alien object he had ever seen. After twenty-seven minutes the door to the bathysphere closed and locked itself as the sphere seemed to come to life.

The bathysphere moved downwards as though they were in an elevator, but through the glass they could see air bubbles rising – they were in the sea.

"This is so cool." Matt grinned, as Near stared through the window with wide eyes. The only recognition Mello gave was to tighten his grip on the edge of the seat. L looked outside with awe. He was nothing but purely professional. L wasn't afraid – he didn't let his emotions get in the way of an investigation. He was just eager for new knowledge and felt thrilled that he got to witness this with his own eyes – something that only a handful of people had ever witnessed and something no one else on the surface knew about. He bit his thumbnail as he watched the mystery unfold.

As they sunk further down, they moved past another statue of a man. Ryan had obviously spent a lot of money making Rapture look spectacular. The elevator music died as they got further and further away from the surface. A projector abruptly rose up, covering the window, and what seemed to be an advert appeared on the screen as some cheerful music played.

The advert was a picture of a woman holding a cigarette and a man lighting it with his fingers. The slogan was 'Fire at your Fingertips! Incinerate – Plasmids by Ryan Industries'.

The screen immediately had Mello's and Matt's attention. Surely it couldn't be possible… The picture changed to a photograph of Ryan.

"_I am Andrew Ryan and I'm here to ask you a question: Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? No says the man in Washington; it belongs to the poor. No says the man in the Vatican; it belongs to God. No says the man in Moscow; it belongs to everyone."_ As he spoke the slides switched to show pictures of people being controlled and terrorised by the appropriate groups to strengthen his speech. _"I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose… Rapture."_

As he said the final word the screen moved back down so that you could once again see out of the window. What they saw was enough to cause them all to gasp, stunned into silence. It was a city – the most beautiful city any of them had ever seen. Bright lights glowed from the signs and schools of fish swam in between the huge, skyscraper buildings that weren't even close to the surface of the sea.

"_A city where the artist would not fear the censor. Where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality. Where the great would not be constrained by the small."_ He spoke in his persuasive and saviour-like voice. The bathysphere moved through the glowing buildings _"And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."_

As the bathysphere kept moving a large whale swam beneath them. None of the four detectives could believe their eyes. It looked so beautiful and Ryan had made it sound like a safe haven. Like paradise. It was easy to see why the people powerful enough to be chosen to escape to the underwater world had vanished without a trace.

Finally they swerved into a tunnel, words appearing as they sailed forwards.

'All Good Things – Of This Earth – Flow – Into The City'.

They got to the end of the tunnel and started moving upwards until the bathysphere came to a complete stop.

It was what they should have been expecting. They _should_ have been expecting the lights to be broken, occasionally glowing as though fighting for life – all they could see an empty, haunted shell of what used to be a grand hall. They knew the background behind Andrew Ryan and the morals the city had been built on and what they saw should have confirmed their theories. However, even L had expected something stunning and inspiring. After the grand introduction to Rapture, they had all forgotten their fear as it turned to wonder. Ryan's soothing voice had tamed more great minds. The ghostlike room snapped them back to reality.

The reality was that they were alone. They no longer belonged to the world of law and aid. Down here, no one could help them – not Watari or Roger – they were almost trapped. It was just the four of them. They stood rigid as they stared out of the pale, wet glass into the unknown.

"Well… Wasn't expecting that." Matt joked half-heartedly, the attempt at humour not touching his face. "Did anyone else notice the guy with his finger burning?"

"I don't know how that would be possible." L admitted, rubbing his toes together. "But… I think this is going to be dangerous. If we take the evidence about the abnormal speed the robot exhibited and the poster advertising a Plasmid then we are seriously underprepared – not that we could have prepared for this without also having some sort of powerful genetic mutation, if that is even possible. That means that… in case anyone still lives down here – and we must assume we will encounter the kidnapper at some point – we each need a weapon and I didn't have time to acquire any so if you find anything you could use to defend yourself then keep it." L ordered, not bothering to whisper around the radio anymore, which he handed to Near.

Matt pulled the lever to open the door without waiting for permission but no one argued against him. L was grateful to Matt for taking the initiative to do it for himself, it saved L the trouble of having to be the one to order for the doors to be opened – sealing their fate.

Without a word they stepped out of the bathysphere and onto the stone floor. Nothing stirred. The four walked across the red carpet, seeing signs strewn across the floor with the words 'Rapture is DEAD' written on them. Clearly there had been a protest about something. No one dared voice their conclusions about this in case someone was nearby. They slowly walked forward, taking in their surroundings. The carpet was dirty and matted with something that bore a close resemblance to blood. Near's damp, white socks picked up a red stain and he tried to ignore it, wishing he'd brought his robot with him.

They walked past more signs:

'We're not your property!'

'Let it end. Let us ascend!'

'Ryan doesn't own us'.

Then they saw a sign nailed to the wall: ATTENTION! All bathysphere travel is now DENIED.

So the people who had moved to Rapture had wanted to leave but been forced to stay… They carried on walking. They walked up another set of stone steps and turned a corner, seeing a large timetable of bathysphere times – all of which were set as 'cancelled'.

Rapture looked more ghostly than ever. Had everyone died? They weren't sure if they would prefer it that way or not. It would obviously be a good thing if no one was around – a lot less dangerous. But at the same time it just felt so wrong. Like a disaster had happened there and it wasn't meant to be that way. They felt like intruders.

Then Near made a realisation that made him wish he had a bit less intelligence for the first time in his life. The other three were so absorbed in the empty city that it hadn't yet dawned on them that… If some of the greatest minds and most intelligent people had lived here and couldn't escape then how would _they_ be able to escape? Were they just as trapped in Rapture as the others had been? Near tugged on L's jumper – wanting to share his thoughts with the others – when he spotted something on the other side of the timetable.

A security camera with a blood-red light.


	6. The Doubters

_Raptures's going to hell, and why? Because of them... always behind the scenes. At the Lyceum, at the galleries in SoHo, even down here, in this so-called-Utopia. The Doubters. But Ryan understands. We're simpatico... Yes, there's blood in the streets. Yes, people sometimes... disappear. And those awful little girls... Well, I suppose the Doubters think you can paint a picture without soiling your smock... - Sander Cohen

* * *

_

The security camera loomed above them, turning mechanically back and forth and Near grabbed L just in time to stop him walking out in front of it. L put his arm out to stop Mello walking ahead and Matt looked in the direction that Near was staring in.

"The security still works, so I guess people must still be here somewhere. It looked like a pretty big place from the outside." Matt noted.

Mello stared up at the camera, deep in thought. "Matt, kneel down." Mello ordered, not taking his gaze away from the moving eye. Matt didn't ask questions as Mello wrapped his legs over Matt's shoulders. "If you drop me I swear to God I will kill you." Mello threatened as Matt stood up, laughing as he held Mello's thighs.

"You know, I think all that chocolate is making you fat." Matt said, purposely sounding as though it was taking all his effort to hold Mello up. He received a smack around the head.

"Give me your screwdriver." Mello demanded, holding a hand out to grab it. Matt fished around in his own personal bag, and gave the screwdriver to Mello, who began unscrewing the camera as quickly as he could. L just watched them both, bemused. Near didn't find this behaviour strange – he'd obviously got used to it at Wammy's House so he took the time to make sure that there weren't any other cameras nearby.

"Won't it be a bit obvious if this camera suddenly dies?" Matt asked, looking at L.

"If the security is still working then it means that there are still people here that need to be kept under control and there are people in authority to watch the security tapes. From what we've seen so far with the protest signs, I think it would be more reasonable to assume that this was broken by someone else rather than by intruders since no one knows about Rapture on the surface and I doubt anyone has found this place before without invitation. We should be safe."

Mello took the camera apart with his hands and threw it down to L, before climbing off Matt. L studied the mechanisms inside and looked intrigued. "I think it is possible to hack the security cameras…"

"That's good to know." Matt agreed, rubbing his shoulders slightly before receiving an angry glare from Mello.

"_Is anyone there?"_ A voice asked, coming from the radio Near held in his hands and almost dropped in shock. The four detectives remained stonily silent, hardly daring to breathe. The voice had an Irish accent, and sounded as though it belonged to a man. _"Damn Splicers." _He grumbled.

"At least we know the radio isn't bugged." L replied, in a warily quiet tone of voice.

Mello nodded. "And we know that someone else is here, watching the security cameras." He added.

"Which means there are still people here to watch." Near sighed, twisting his hair tightly around his finger.

"Called Splicers don't forget." Matt grinned. "Wammy Boys versus the Splicers!"

"Matt, this isn't a game!" Mello yelled, his voice echoing around the empty room and receiving a stern look from L.

"Yeah, yeah. You take life too seriously Mells. Do you know what would cheer you up?"

"Chocolate." Mello sighed in response, knowing that eating it now would be wasteful.

"Nope." Matt grinned. Mello paused, recognising the look in Matt's eye.

"Don't. Even. Think. About. That. Fucking. Song." Mello growled, stomping ahead.

The others followed, Matt bending down to pick a wrench up off the floor. "This can do as a weapon."

Mello hesitated, looking around for something he could use himself and finding a crowbar abandoned by some rubble, with a hole leading up to a much warmer looking room. He tested the crowbar in his hands and seemed satisfied as he peered through the gap in the wall.

"I think we might have to go this way." He said. "There's a sign that says… 'Lounge'."

L sighed, pressing his thumb against his bottom lip. "Make sure you don't go too far ahead. We can't risk being seen by any security cameras."

Mello didn't hesitate and he was quickly followed by the others – all enticed by the bright, warm appearance of the room behind the jagged entrance. It didn't look much more attractive than the previous room. Walls had been smashed and there was still broken rock all over the floor but it was lighter and looked more normal than the previous room. They hid as they made sure there were no security cameras then stepped forward, faced with a large door that looked as though it belonged to a vault. Above it were the words 'Welcome to Rapture – Opportunity Awaits'.

L was the first to step forward, trying to find a way to open it. There was a small box next to the door that should have had a handle to open it by but it had been snapped off and broken beyond use. He sighed as he turned around, trying to find somewhere else to go or something to use to try and open the door. The so-called Splicers wouldn't be a problem if they couldn't even get far enough into Rapture to meet any.

"We could try the stairs." L said, but sounded reluctant due to the sign pointing in that direction. 'Plasmids'. L wasn't sure how they worked or if they'd be led to a strange hospital factory where they'd get trapped. It was all his imagination could conjure up.

Matt had also seen the sign and him and Mello were pushed forward by curiosity, so were the first to climb the staircase. Near followed behind, his eyes darting everywhere. He knew Mello, Matt and even L were too easily distracted by the mystery unfolding before them. If it hadn't been for him, they would have been seen by the camera already. He didn't want to take any risks.

At the top of the stairs was a vending machine named 'Gatherer's Garden'. On the floor next to it lay a bottle of red liquid and an oversized syringe filled with glowing blue liquid. On the side of the vending machine were some instructions:

_Is this your first time plasmid? It couldn't be simpler to gain the powers to give you and your family a better life! Add some Adam to the Plasmid syringe and shake until the mixture turns pale red._

"That is all?" L asked, slightly surprised. Mello was staring intently at the machine.

"Well, we can't use it." Near stated, capturing Mello's attention. "Genetic engineering is inhumane – that is why it's illegal. Humans aren't meant to have this type of power."

"Near is right." L agreed. "Clearly something terrible happened down here which is why the city is in ruins. If we –"

He was interrupted by an agonising yell of alarm, coming from Matt as his hands glowed bright blue, electric bolts jumping through his fingertips. His bones made loud cracking noises as though the joints were realigning themselves. "MAKE IT STOP!" He yelled, tears falling down his face from the unbearable pain.

L, Near and Mello turned in alarm as Matt staggered backwards and tripped over his own feet, hurling himself towards the banister and the drop behind it.

Near grabbed him just in time, pulling him away from the edge. Mello stared down at him in horror as Matt fell unconscious, slumping on the floor, his hands still twitching erratically.

"Is he going to die?" Mello asked, his voice so low it was almost too quiet for L to hear.

"I don't know." L replied, bending down to check Matt's pulse. "How stupid."

"Don't call him that!" Mello growled, pushing L aside so he could care for his best friend himself.

"Matt _is_ stupid Mello." Near argued, ignoring the blonde's death stare. "Only an idiot would inject themselves with whatever was in the contents of that syringe. He had no idea what it would do to him, and he still did it. He's lucky he isn't already dead."

"No one asked _your_ opinion, Near." Mello murmured, looking down at Matt. So far they had only been taught basic first aid so he had no idea what to do but didn't want Near to know that.

"Be quiet. I can hear a voice." L muttered ominously.

A woman collapsed on the floor below them, crushed rose petals in her hand. She was sobbing uncontrollably and the boys didn't dare make a sound. She was wearing torn clothes and had a huge, cracked lump on one side of her face that looked like a tumour.

"Not my baby." She screamed through floods of tears. "You don't want her… Why couldn't you take the neighbour's girl? Or take me instead! Give me back my LITTLE GIRL! Someone… Help me! Please, just don't hurt her… Where are you darling?! Mummy's getting very angry now! Come back!"

L gingerly moved to the banister. It sounded as though the woman's daughter had been kidnapped too. He reached for the wrench Matt had dropped, just in case, and spoke in a soft – comforting voice.

"Are you okay? Can we help –"

"YOU!" The woman screeched, jumping up and racing for the stairs, a lead pipe clutched tightly in one hand. "YOU TOOK MY BABY! GIVE HER BACK!"

In one swift movement Near was pinned against the wall, his hands brought up to his face in an attempt to shield himself. There wasn't any time for L to try and negotiate with the woman – he did the only thing he could do to save Near and whacked her over the head with the wrench, knocking her unconscious.

Near looked even paler than usual, in complete shock. He was so afraid he was visibly shaking. L was consumed with guilt. He had been the one to attract the woman's attention and he had been the one who had allowed the younger boys to come. Near was right – trained people should have been brought down here but he let his curiosity get in the way of his judgement. It was his fault that the three younger detectives had worked on the case in the first place, because he was so obsessed with Kira. Near almost got hurt. Matt was lying unconscious… And he'd just attacked a woman.

L touched Near's hand softly, wrapping his fingers around the cold palm and pulling Near towards him, into a hug. Near wrapped his arms around L, clinging to the older man's shirt.

Near whispered in a tiny, shaky voice so that no one else could hear. "I don't want to die, L."

L looked around the dilapidated room and at the woman unconscious and bleeding at the foot of the stairs and he didn't have an answer. He placed his thin, bony fingers on Near's head in a way he hoped was reassuring – he was never good at social interaction but neither was Near so he didn't suppose it mattered.

Mello was looking down at his best friend with a sick feeling in his stomach, also consumed with guilt. Mello was the one who had insisted that they all had to go down together. He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if anything happened to Matt.

The woman began to stir and after a few seconds she started to cry again. "Darling? Come out now… please. Momma just wants to hold you. Where are you sweetheart?"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Mello yelled, running towards the woman and smacking her across the head with the crowbar using his full force. She fell to the floor, her eyes wide open and stopped breathing. Mello swept the lead pipe off the floor and handed it to Near.

L looked stunned, his arms still around Near. "Mello, you just killed someone."

"If I didn't then she would have killed us." Mello replied, returning to Matt's side, barely able to look at him.

…

After four minutes, Near gained enough confidence to let go of L.

…

After nine minutes, Mello's head started to spin with worry.

…

After twelve minutes, Matt's eyes fluttered and opened.


	7. Hatred

_One of the children came and sat in my lap. I push her off, I shout, 'Get away from me!' I can see the Adam oozing out of the corner of her mouth, thick and green. Her filthy hair hanging in her face, dirty clothes, and that dead glow in her eye... I feel... hatred, like I never felt before, in my chest. Bitter, burning, fury. I can barely breathe. And suddenly, I know, it is not this child I hate. - Bridgette Tenenbaum

* * *

_

"Honestly Mello, it's so cool." Matt grinned, blue sparks flying between his fingers as they trudged through a narrow tunnel made of glass, so that they could see the bright city surrounding them. "I bet you're jealous."

"It's not cool Matt. It was the worst idea you've ever had." Mello replied, sulkily.

"Oh whatever, if I didn't have it then we wouldn't have got any further than the first room." Matt replied, smiling to himself as he admired his hands.

"_Hallo? Hallo?"_ A woman's voice asked through the radio still clutched in Near's hands. She had a thick German accent and the four of them knew instantly that this must be Tenenbaum. _"You want to ignore me? Fine then. But I know you are there and soon, Ryan will too. You will not survive Rapture by yourself. Do you even know how to recharge your Plasmids? No, I don't think so. You cannot trust anyone here but you can trust me. If you want to speak to me then only use channel eight, that way no one else will hear us."_

Matt looked up at L, who shook his head. They were about to go through the next water-tight door when Tenenbaum started to speak again. L didn't want to risk catching someone's attention so he listened.

"_I did some terrible things. But I know what I did was wrong. Now… I am trying to fix them. You do not know the history of Rapture and the civil war that took place and these are things you need to know to understand. The battle between Ryan and Fontaine… And it was all my fault because I discovered the Adam. You are listening now, yes? I know why you do not want to answer. You cannot trust anyone, correct? That is true but if you do not know the facts then you will die here and there will be no one to find your body but the Little Sisters and the Splicers."_

There was a pause as the boys hesitated, silently exchanging their thoughts.

"It would be safer not to trust anyone. For all we know, she is the kidnapper." L said, walking ahead.

They entered a dingy room with hardly any lighting and everyone froze. Facing them was an old, dry corpse that was mutilated beyond recognition. Mello prodded Matt, pointing to a shadow moving on a wall. A hacking cough accompanied the shadow, as the figured stumbled around, muttering to itself.

"Stuck up bitches. I'm good looking! Can't they see that?! Steinman will fix me, he will… Then the ladies will be knocking down my door… Hello? You come to laugh at me too?! I know you can hear me." The man yelled, as the shadow moved towards them. Mello and L clutched their weapons as the Splicer came around the corner.

Around his head was a bandage and he resembled the corpse more than he did a live human. His jaw was slack and hanging open and his skin was tight against his skull, sagging underneath the eye that wasn't covered by the bandage. More important than his appearance was the fact he was holding a pistol, which he immediately pointed at L. Before he could pull the trigger Matt reacted with lightening speed, aiming and electrocuting the man who had been standing in a puddle. The electricity skipped across the water as the man shuddered in anguish, yelling agonisingly and died instantly.

Silence clouded over them and Matt looked down at his hand in disgust. "I'm… a murderer."

"You saved my life." L corrected, looking incredibly guilty for the second time. "And… I think… It's either kill or be killed. Whatever happens down here… stays down here. No one else will know. If we want to get out of here alive and rescue the girls then I suppose…"

"You're condoning killing people that aren't in the frame of mind to think rationally." Near murmured.

"Yes I am." L replied. "Because otherwise both you and I would be dead now."

"_Listen to me." _A voice they recognised as Tenenbaum spoke through the radio. _"You must be very afraid. I am afraid too but this is partly my fault. I know this now. This is wrong. But I can help you. You must be here for the girls, yes? I am the only one that can save them now. They are Little Sisters, but I have the power to fix them. You do not have to trust me if you do not wish, but you need the Plasmid I have. We have to meet. I promise you, I will not kill you. If I wanted you to die then it would be better for me to let the Splicers have you. Those girls do not deserve this and bringing children down into this hell is unforgivable. But they are not afraid because they have been destroyed. Their families will never see them again if you do not listen to me now."_

L continued to ignore her voice as he stepped warily forward.

"_Please, it is important! Even if you do find the girls, you will be killed if you try to take them. You must listen to me. I will tell you everything. Please… I have to make this right."_

L stopped in his tracks and considered what she was saying. It was true that not having contact with anyone else was the most sensible thing to do but there was also more chance of them dying without information about Rapture than there was by contact with Tenenbaum. They couldn't have been in Rapture longer than an hour, and already he, Near and Matt could have died. He turned towards the other three, his hands in his pockets.

"What do you want to do?"

"Well personally, I want to speak to her. I want to know more about my hand." Matt replied. Near nodded in agreement. Surprisingly, Mello was the one taking L's question most seriously.

"She didn't sound like she was lying and if we're careful not to give any details away then we stand to gain more than she does. They'll notice the helicopter outside eventually. We may have already been caught by a security camera and we wouldn't know about it. I think we should listen to what she has to say."

L paused, his head falling to one side. He had hoped that one of the others would have found a more valid reason to remain undetected but as he suspected that wouldn't be possible. He turned the dial to the number eight mark and pushed the button in.

"Okay. I'll listen."

"_You will? Danke. Where are you at the moment?"_

"I can't tell you that. I can't trust you." L replied simply. There was a pause.

"_I understand. Listen, there is a sea slug that is able to produce Adam. The more Adam you have, the more Plasmids you can have. You will find blue Eve hypos around Rapture, you need these to recharge your Plasmids. Without Adam, we could not have achieved genetic modification and I was the one to discover this. I… I planted the Sea Slug inside the little girls and they were mentally conditioned to take the blood from corpses and drink it, so that the sea slug would regenerate the Adam in the Splicer's blood stream and we could make more. To do this we turned them into Little Sisters. They are always protected by a Big Daddy and if you go near the girls then you will be killed. But I want to save them. So… I created a Plasmid that can reverse the girl's physical conditioning and some of their mental conditioning. It is the best I could do and the only way to save them now. I need to meet you so I can give you this Plasmid."_

"No." L replied, defiance in his voice.

"…_Perhaps your distrust will serve you well in Rapture. Fine then. I will leave the Plasmid inside a Teddy Bear for you to collect yourself. Do not speak to anyone else. Fontaine and Ryan and even Atlas are using my girls for Adam. They harvest the sea slug and that kills the child. There is only me you can trust."_

L turned the radio back onto a neutral channel and handed it over to Near. Mello bent down to look at the dead splicer and pried the pistol from his hand, giving his crowbar to Matt. Matt's attention was elsewhere though, to the blue light coming from around a corner. He walked towards it, making sure he wouldn't be seen by anything and picking up the hypo. 'Eve' was written on it in formal scrawl so he dropped it into his own bag, to Near's disgust.

L picked up a first aid kit that was lying on the ground and then they left the dim room of dead bodies and moved ahead. If they had expected anything dissimilar to what they had already witnessed then they were disappointed. Broken rock lay crumbled on the ground and corpses littered the corners as though someone had tried to tidy the room and pushed all the dead bodies to the side as decoration. Sticky blood stained the floor, leaving footprint marks wherever they stepped.

They stood close to each other for support. They didn't know how long it would take Tenenbaum to hide a teddy bear for them to find or where she was going to put it so they moved fairly quickly – L was conscious that their mission could take a lot of time and they only had a limited amount of food.

Just as they opened a door, leading into another almost identical room they heard a loud, metallic groan and the ground shook beneath their feet. Near looked alarmed and backed away slightly as L crouched down to try and get closer so he could see what he was up against. Matt flexed his fingers, getting ready to fight.

Near immediately recognised the monster as the doll that had washed up on the beach. "I told you so Mello." He muttered, unable to let the opportunity pass. Mello frowned slightly but his focus was on the Big Daddy with its glowing yellow face.

A heavenly voice made them all jump. "Look, Mister Bubbles! It's an Angel."

They knew something was wrong. The voice didn't sound right. It sounded hollow and raspy – not how you would expect a six-year old girl to speak. L moved forward silently, trying to see if the voice that bore a slight resemblance to a child's could really exist in such a dangerous place.

What he saw shattered everything he believed in.

A beautiful little girl in a tattered dress and bare feet stood above a dead body. In her hand was something L had never seen before. The contraption consisted of an oversized syringe with a handle attached and at the end of the syringe was something identical to a baby's bottle made from glass. The child hummed to herself and the corrupted voice echoed around the room. She held the weapon tightly above her head with her petite hands and thrust it into the corpse, piercing through the dead organs.

She pulled the trigger back with her chubby fingers and the bottle was immediately filled with red liquid. Without hesitation or opinion the girl unscrewed the bottle from the syringe and drank the contents, spluttering slightly as she did so. Blood, tissue and other things dripped down her chin and tainted her dress as she wiped it away with the back of her hand. The girl looked up, her whole eyes glowing bright yellow as she reached for the robot's hand.

L had frozen, disturbed. He had already known that this city was beyond anything he could have expected but he had never imagined another human being would have the capabilities to turn a child into a mindless, mutated creature for their own selfish addictions. They had destroyed an innocent child's life – perhaps forever – and created what could only be described as a monster. He couldn't move, his joints locked into place as his mind tried to reject what he had just witnessed. He existed to give justice to innocent humans and catch murderers and other criminals that broke the law. To help humankind. What he saw in that one girl's sightless eyes destroyed everything he stood for.

Near stepped forward, as though in a trance. He wasn't like L – he couldn't believe that what he was seeing was true. He gingerly held out his hand and bent down to the girl's level when he caught her attention.

"Do you need help? We've come to take you back to your family." He spoke in a polite, soothing voice.

"Don't let him hurt me Mister B." The girl begged, croakily. The robot hauled the girl up onto his shoulders and pointed his enormous weapon – a drill for a hand – at Near threateningly, warning him that he would get attacked if he didn't back away.

Near understood and got back to his feet, walking slowly away from the little girl. "What should we do?"

L couldn't find the words to reply. He stared blankly, at nothing in particular. His throat constricted and he forced back tears. The Wammy kids had never seen him so pale.

Mello seemed to understand what L was thinking and answered for him. "Well, we need to find the Plasmid that undoes whatever that bitch did to them. I don't think that Big Daddy thing will let us near the girl as long as it can still protect her so it looks like we'll have to go through that thing first. We should probably look around for some better weapons or set up a trap or something. As much as I hate to admit it, we probably need Tenenbaum right now. She can fix them and knows a lot more than we do. …L?"

L cleared his throat, shaking his head slightly as though trying to clear the image from his mind. "Yes, Mello?" He answered, his voice more emotionless than Mello had ever heard it.

Mello hesitated, wondering how to word what he wanted to say without freaking out the socially-frigid detective. "Are you… alright?" He asked. That was the best he could come up with.

"No, I'm not alright. No half-way decent human would be alright after witnessing that. Clearly we won't find anyone with morals down here." He answered, his head dropping to the side exhaustedly. "I think we're in Hell."


	8. Great Chain Moves Slowly

_Is there blood in the streets? Of course. Have some chosen to destroy themselves with careless splicing? Undeniable. But I will make no proclamations, I will dictate no laws. The Great Chain moves slowly, but with wisdom. It is our impatience that invites in the Parasite of big government. And once you've invited it in, it will never stop feeding on the body of the city. - Andrew Ryan

* * *

_

"_I have hidden the Plasmid in the Medical Pavilion. It is disguised inside a Teddy Bear. I also have some details about your Plasmids. They regenerate slowly over time but if you run out of Eve hypos then you can use cigarettes or alcohol to regain a small amount of Eve. There are not so many Splicers in the Medical Pavilion because they all go to Steinman for surgery and he sometimes gets carried away so they are mostly dead. To save the Little Sisters you will need to kill the Big Daddies and then inject them with this Plasmid. I will always leave these Plasmids close to a Gatherer's Garden machine and then you can look at the maps around Rapture to find them. I will leave you some Ammo as well in case you have run out. In this toy I have left you a pistol in case you do not have one."_

It had been an hour since Tenenbaum had given this message to the four detectives and they were making their way to the next bathysphere.

"Matt, what is the point in collecting cigarettes when you don't even have anything to light them with?" Near asked, twisting his hair around his finger.

"If they have this many cigarettes lying around then there has to be some matches somewhere. Anyway, I saved L's life didn't I? I might need them."

"But you don't smoke." Near continued, padding forward in the direction the map had pointed them.

"Yeah, well now I do. It's not a big deal, loads of people smoke."

Mello trudged silently alongside them, glaring at the ground and occasionally glancing at Matt's luminous blue fingers. He had been stonily silent since Tenenbaum's last radio message and L was also quiet, focused on saving the girls.

They didn't run into any more Splicers on their way to the bathysphere and Matt started hacking it as soon as he got inside. L, Mello and Near sat on the seats attached to the bathysphere walls as Matt began taking the casing off the circuit and rewiring the system.

"Mello, it is unlike you to be so quiet. Are you afraid?" L asked, studying Mello's expression.

"No." Mello replied, slightly forcefully. L seemed to understand that Mello didn't want to speak about it and dropped the subject, fishing a chocolate bar out of his bag and throwing it to the blonde.

Mello caught it instantly and tore the wrapper off, hacking a chunk away with his teeth.

"L, how long do you think this will take by your calculations?" Near asked.

"Well, bearing in mind you, Matt and Mello need around six hours sleep minimum to function at your best it could take approximately… six days."

"Six days is a long time to spend down here." Matt mumbled as plugged the wires into place and zapped them with his hand. The door to the bathysphere sealed itself and the lights flashed to life as the pod moved upwards. Matt got up and sat next to Mello, staring intently at his own hand. "Hey look… I can control when it's active and when it isn't. See? My hand looks normal now… And now the electricity is back." He grinned.

"You're like a child." Mello muttered, putting some distance in between him and Matt.

"Mello what the hell is wrong with you? You're just jealous because I have a Plasmid and you don't. Don't be so sulky."

"I. Don't. Sulk. And I'm pissed of because I have a complete MORON for a best friend."

Matt snorted. "You don't sulk? Mello, I can't remember the last time you went a whole day without sulking because Near had beat you at something for the millionth time."

Mello's body went rigid and even L knew how sensitive Mello was about that issue and looked at Matt with concern. Matt either didn't notice or care. Mello replied without looking at Matt, his voice low and furious. "Don't fucking speak to me again."

"Whatever, see you're just proving my point." Matt replied as the bathysphere jolted to a stop. Mello stood silently and stepped out of the bathysphere, preferring to be among the Splicers than in close proximity with his former best friend. As far as Matt was concerned, Mello was the one with the problem. Mello was far too sensitive to criticism which is why he died a little bit inside every time Near won something against him. Matt almost laughed at how pathetic it was.

"Here's a map." L said, to try and steer the conversation in a different direction. "We're close to a Gatherer's Garden machine so we should head –"

"_I know you're here."_ An infuriated voice spoke from the radio. It belonged to a man, and they recognised the voice from the adverts. _"Yes, I am Andrew Ryan. And you… You are just an intruder, trying to steal what you could never achieve by yourself. There is a word for a man like you and it is 'parasite'. A man does not become powerful through other people's work. No… I'll make sure you don't live to tell the outside world about my city. MY city! You will die here. It is only a matter of time."_

Matt rolled his eyes. "Is that guy dramatic or what? Jeeeeesus."

Near reached for his hair, looking up at the redhead. "Matt, what is wrong with you? You're acting completely different from how you usually are."

"Oh and you would know wouldn't you, Near? Seeing how we're _such_ good friends and everything. Seriously, you're more of a loser than Mello is and that's saying something because he never wins a thing."

"Matt…" L began, cautiously. "I think that Near has a point. That Plasmid is clearly having an effect on your judgement and temperament. You don't think like this under normal circumstances as far as I'm aware. Try and concentrate on what you're saying."

Matt stopped in his tracks, partly in shock from being directly addressed by L and partly because he saw Mello facing away and rubbing something from his eyes. Matt bit his lip, his face turning warm with guilt as he looked at his own feet, catching blue sparks out of the corner of his eye. He clenched his fist tightly as he stepped towards Mello, his face now competing with his hair for brightness.

"Mells, I'm sorry." He admitted in a small voice. Matt's gaze met a bloodshot one and Mello glared at him before stomping forward in the direction of the machine.

"I hate you." He replied, thickly. L and Near avoided each other's gaze as they followed Mello, their weapons digging into their palms from their tight grip.

Matt sighed and followed behind them, subdued. It wasn't the first time Mello had said that he hated Matt and he always came around within a few hours but it was the first time Matt knew he had deserved it. He knew how long Mello's stubborn nature could last and kicked some rubble with the toe of his shoe, wondering what he'd have to do to get forgiveness after what he'd said. It was probably the worst possible thing he could have done to hurt Mello. And he'd said it twice.

Mello continued forward, having too much pride to admit he'd forgotten which direction he was meant to be going in. After a few minutes L shuffled beside him and muttered in Mello's ear.

"We're going in the opposite direction, did you realise?" He whispered.

Mello kept on moving forward before he was eventually forced to stop and turn around. He folded his arms huffily and avoided Matt who moved to Mello's side, smiling apologetically. Mello didn't care. Matt was so far over the line that he'd fallen off a cliff and as far as Mello was concerned, Matt was dead to him. He was planning how to subtly make Near his best friend to make Matt jealous, but he didn't think he'd be able to stand hanging around with someone that was only interested in one jigsaw puzzle. The fact that he could never complete that puzzle faster than Near might have had something to do with it, but Mello told himself that Near could only beat him out of practise rather than skill. Definitely. Besides, he had much more interesting things to do.

L took the lead this time, and Near walked by his side. They had an unspoken agreement in which they both remained silent since neither of them particularly enjoyed conversation. Thanks to Mello leading them in the wrong direction it took them half an hour to reach the Gatherer's Garden machine with the Teddy underneath it – just as Tenenbaum had promised.

L picked up the bear and turned it over so he could reach the zip on the bear's back. He held the zip between his forefinger and thumb and pulled it down gingerly, just in case it was a trap. Inside was a pistol and a syringe full of red liquid that L guessed would heal the Little Sisters. L was about to hand the gun to Matt but thought better of it, letting Near have it instead. Near looked up at him, hope hidden behind his eyes. L seemed to read him like a book and handed the bear to him as the older detective scrutinised the syringe.

Matt sneered at Near. "I can't believe you actually want that toy. You're like a baby. What good is a stuffed bear going to do you down here? You're so pathetic."

"I don't see how wanting to carry this bear makes me pathetic or in any way similar to a baby. Just because you have an interest in games rather than toys, it doesn't mean that whoever has dissimilar interests from you is pathetic."

"Would it kill you to put some feeling into your words Near? It's like talking to a robot. Your voice has to be the most boring sound I've ever heard. At least I got over the fact that my parents are dead. You just cling to your fucking toys as if it'll bring them back to life or something. I know why you fucking do it Near but they're _dead_ for fucks sake. None of us have anyone in the world, alright? But normal people move on – it's like you stayed four years old forever!" Matt argued, stopping when the sound of his own voice began to annoy him.

Near didn't respond as he held the bear against his chest with his weak grip. He stared blankly at Matt; a million thoughts racing through his head and not one of them making any mark on his face.

"Where is Mello?" L asked, spinning around worriedly. Matt's head jolted up and Near broke away from his thoughts to notice that Mello was missing. A moment later they heard a yell of anguish escape through gritted teeth. L rushed around the corner next to the machine and found Mello hunched on the floor, his hands gripping his arms so tightly that his fingers had torn through his flesh and his eyes scrunched so hard it must have been painful.

"Mello what have you done…" L whispered under his breath, rushing over to Mello and pulling the boy's hands away from his arms before he could do any more damage to himself. Mello rocked in physical torture, trying his hardest not to scream and failing.

Next to him lay an empty syringe.


	9. Mistakes

_Could I have made mistakes? One does not build cities if one is guided by doubt. But can one govern in absolute certainty? I know that my beliefs have elevated me, just as I know that the things I have rejected would have destroyed me. But the city... it is collapsing before my... have I become so convinced by my own beliefs that I have stopped seeing the truth? Perhaps. But Atlas is out there, and he aims to destroy me, and destroy my city. To question is to surrender. I will not question. - Andrew Ryan

* * *

_

"So Mel, can I have a light?" Matt grinned as they huddled in the bathysphere – the door locked for safety.

"I still hate you Matt." Mello answered, not even looking at the boy. He had something far more interesting to study – if slightly uglier.

His left hand burnt to charcoal and cracked in several places glowed orange, like a dying fire with the embers still glowing under the ash. He chanced a subtle glance at Matt's hand, deciding it was noticeably prettier than his which looked burnt to a crisp. There was a similarity between them though and it was in their veins. Mello could see the luminous blue electricity coursing through the veins on Matt's hand like he could see the bright sanguine fire burning through his own veins.

"I'll let you touch them." Matt smiled hopefully, making Mello quickly look away – embarrassed at being caught.

"Touch what?" He replied, unnecessary anger lining his tone.

"You were looking at my veins." Matt laughed. "Don't you want to know what they feel like?"

Mello made a disgusted noise with his throat. Matt could always win him around like that. Mello's curious nature was more of a curse than a blessing. "Fine, but that doesn't mean we're friends again."

Matt beamed knowingly but didn't push it as he moved next to Mello and held out his hand. "Can I feel yours?"

Mello frowned but held out his own hand as his thin fingers traced Matt's glowing veins. Mello's eyebrows rose in surprise as he felt the electrons bouncing behind the cells. "They vibrate." He stated, failing to hide the wonder in his tone.

"I can tell you're impressed." Matt laughed, reaching out and placing his own fingers against Mello's blood vessel. His body reacted quickly and he pulled away instantly, his fingers bright red. "Jesus Mells, you could have warned me."

"Oh, are they hot?" Mello asked with fake innocence in his voice, hiding a smirk.

"Yeah, very funny. You happy now you got me back?" Matt grumbled, rolling his eyes.

"Marginally. You still owe me though, Matt." Mello warned, his eyes returning to the mutilated state of his left hand.

Near had already fallen asleep, clutching the pink teddy bear as though it was a lifeline. He was a million times happier now that he'd found a source of comfort – not that anyone could tell the difference. L stayed awake to guard them and also because he couldn't sleep if he wanted to. He held the stick of a lollypop between two fingers and twisted it in his mouth while he studied the Plasmid from Tenenbaum and Mello's and Matt's new hands.

"You know, you should try to get some sleep. It's impossible to estimate the next time we will be safe enough to rest." L prodded. He was almost angry at himself for not thinking to bring blankets, but consoled himself by the thought that he couldn't have imagined what they would have found down here and blankets weren't a necessity. Mello voiced L's thoughts.

"L, do you know how uncomfortable it is in here? The metal is freezing and besides I think Plasmids give you energy. I don't feel tired at all. I guess it's just Near that needs to sleep."

"Try anyway Mello." L replied staring hard enough into Mello's eyes to make him uncomfortable.

Mello drummed his right-handed fingers on his leg, trying to fight against submission. "Fine, if you tell me a story."

L almost chuckled but regained his composure in time. "A story? What do you want me to tell you? I don't know any stories."

"Well then tell us about one of your cases. What about how you caught B when he ran away from Wammy's?"

"B… Backup. Fine, I'll tell you." L sighed rubbing his toes together. His head fell lazily to one side. "His real name was Beyond Birthday…"

Mello and Matt didn't fall asleep that night, even though L's story finished three hours before Near woke up. A moment before they were about to leave the bathysphere, someone contacted them.

"_You found the Plasmid, ja? This is good news. Are you somewhere we can speak? I need to give you information before you can fight the Big Daddies."_

"Yes, you can speak." L replied after signalling for silence from the younger boys.

"_Now I will give you my confessions. There is a sea slug that can repair damaged cells. With a lot of research I found the Adam. With Adam we could adapt the human body to do whatever we wished. We could have surgery with no risks and powers beyond normal imagination. We developed the first Plasmids and they became an addiction to everyone in Rapture. Soon… We could not make enough of this Adam. We needed to make more."_

"So you planted the slug inside a defenceless child and forced them to drink the liquid remains of corpses so that you could all fuel your addictions." L stated, an unusual hard edge to his voice. He couldn't listen to her talk so casually about the impossible damage she had inflicted upon the girls.

"_Yes I know this. At the time we were blinded by greed. This does not excuse what I have done but all I can do now is put it right. With these little girls retrieving the Adam they were in constant danger from the Splicers. We had to find protection for them and we… We…" _There was a long pause, lasting almost over a minute. L began to wonder if she had fainted when she spoke again, ridding her voice of guilt. _"Suchong developed a… guardian for the girls. They were programmed to protect the Little Sisters with their life and Suchong mentally conditioned the girls to become attached with the Big Daddies. Now you can only separate them by killing the Big Daddy. They will be very difficult to kill so you should be careful. You are their only hope at being free now."_

"Alright." L answered, simply. He was disgusted by the woman and wanted to speak to her as little as possible.

"_No, you must wait! This next part is vital. You must know about the war of Rapture or else you will be easily tricked. It is still taking place as we speak. Ryan and Fontaine are fighting each other for power. In Rapture, power means Adam. If you have Adam then you have the ability to kill and you have control over everyone. Ryan had control over the Adam so… Fontaine started to kidnap children and he stole mine and Suchong's plans so he could turn them into Little Sisters. That's why he built –"_

Another small voice spoke at the end of the radio. _"Mama Tenenbaum, we finished our breakfast. Will you play hopscotch with us now?"_

"_Yes, yes, okay." _Tenenbaum replied to the young girl next to her. _"She is a Little Sister that has been healed. The girls climb through the pipes and I take care of them here in my safe house. I will speak to you soon."_

At that point the radio cut out and they were left facing the closed bathysphere door. Matt sent an electric current through a specific wire and the door opened for them as they stepped back outside.

"So, are we going to try and fight one of these Big Daddies?" Mello asked holding fire at the end of his fingertips so Matt could light a cigarette. Near looked at Mello and Matt revolted but remained quiet as he walked alongside L.

"I suppose we don't have a choice." L sighed, wandering around in the hope of coming across a Little Sister.

Matt took a drag on his cigarette and choked slightly, spluttering smoke from his lips. He corrected himself as though nothing had happened, putting the cigarette back to his mouth.

"Something's in the shadows…" A playful voice teased, coming from a young woman. Behind the small arch they were approaching they could hear light footsteps padding around.

"Be careful." L whispered.

The woman spoke again seductively, getting closer. "Come talk to me…"

The woman came into view, and caught sight of the four detectives. She grinned flirtingly and leant against the doorframe, her sights set on L. "You wanna play with me?"

The girl had short, blonde hair cut into a bob. Black tear tracks stained her cheeks as well as various shallow cuts on her face and shoulders. She was wearing a torn cocktail dress but other than her bedraggled appearance she looked relatively normal in comparison to the two Splicers they had seen so far. L looked at the woman, not knowing how to react. He eventually settled for acting as though she wasn't addressing him and turned towards the younger three.

"We can't attack her if she isn't hostile." He warned them – mainly warning Matt. Near nodded in agreement, his righteous streak unwavering no matter what situation they were in. Matt and Mello caught each other's eye but said nothing.

The blonde Splicer approached L, swaying her hips as she walked. "I can make it nice for you down here." She promised, almost growling through her sultry tone. Her voice was shrill and loud and she flung her arms around L's neck, clinging on to him in a way that bordered on desperate. L's eyes widened as the stranger invaded his personal space so intimately that it was uncomfortable – especially under the eyes of three boys that looked up to him as a role model. He wrapped his fingers around the woman's wrists and unhooked her hold on him, placing her hands by her side.

"I'm sorry but I don't think that is appropriate." He told her, feeling his cheeks turn faintly pink and trying incredibly hard to stop them.

The woman looked terrified and broken, her eyes darting over L's face so rapidly that he could barely keep up with her movements. "What's wrong with me?" She asked in a small, baby-like tone voice. She sounded on the verge of tears. "I'm pretty enough…"

"Yes, you're very attractive but I'd rather you left us alone." L sighed, backing away from the heartbroken blonde.

"I don't wanna hear this…" She sobbed, teardrops merging with her mascara and falling down her face in black, dirty clumps of liquid. "I don't want to hear this!"

She covered her ears with her small, bruised hands and sobbed loudly, her sobs turning into howls as she worked herself into hysterics. L looked alarmed and grabbed the girl's wrists again to get her attention and so she could hear the racket she was making.

Near looked away, realising that consoling the woman would take time so he studied his surroundings instead, the tattered bear in one hand and the unused pistol in his other. Mello was glaring at the ridiculous Splicer, throwing herself all over L and causing a scene that could potentially put all their lives in danger. He looked at Matt and found Matt wearing the same expression, not willing to be patient.

"She's wasting our time and she's clearly mad." Matt muttered into Mello's ear.

"She's a wreck, it's only a matter of time before she starts attacking us anyway. It's not like there's a point in prolonging her life. She's just an example of the reason those girls were taken in the first place." Mello murmured back, his hand glowing fiercely.

"What's your name?" L asked in what he hoped was a soothing voice.

"B-b-baby Jane." The woman hiccupped through her tears.

"Well, we really need to get going and I'm afraid you can't come with us."

"Why _not_?" The woman shrieked before changing her tact. Liquid splashed under her feet as she took a step towards L again, placing her fingers on his neck. "I can take care of you down here. It gets boring all alone." She grinned at him, displaying a beautiful smile. L once again tried to move out of her reach, the contact making him feel uneasy.

Matt looked down at the liquid on the floor and nudged Mello, a grin on his face. Mello looked in the same direction as Matt before shaking his head. "I can't."

As the words escaped his lips an image flashed into his head and he whispered something in Matt's ear, whose eyes lit up. Matt took a long drag from his cigarette.

"Tell us when you're done L." He said, finishing his cigarette and dropping it onto the floor, straight into the oil him and Mello had just spotted. In less than a second the blonde Splicer had burst into flames and let out a loud scream as she turned and ran to find some water. After a few steps she fell to the ground and stopped moving all together.

L looked down at the oil and up to Matt and Mello, staring at them for a long two seconds. Whatever he thought remained in his head as he moved around the puddle of oil and in the direction they had been travelling in before without saying a word.


	10. Desperate Times

**Okay, so I forgot to explain the timeline which you may have realised isn't cannon and is probably confusing to anyone that isn't in my head. I decided since I had to mess with the timing anyway (because none of them were born in the 1950s/1960s) I might as well do it in a way that gives me more to work with. And also because in BioShock 2 a LOT of characters that I love are gone and so, yeah. Anyway:**

**This is set before Fontaine 'dies' but Atlas has just started making an appearance and Jack hasn't turned up but Suchong is dead and Tenenbaum has seen the error of her ways. In a bid to try and get more Adam than Ryan and also because Tenenbaum now feels guilty, Fontaine stole Tenenbaum's and Suchong's plans, plus some equipment and built the Big Sister, but you'll find out more about that later. I hope that clears things up a bit.**

**Also, Frank Fontaine got in touch!! *Faints* He likes cheese *nods* but he kindly told me not to ask haha. I got so excited ^^**

**On with the story :D

* * *

**_Doctor Suchong, frankly, I'm shocked by your proposal. If we were to modify the structure of our commercial Plasmid line as you propose, to have them make the user vulnerable to mental suggestion through pheromones, would we not be able to effectively control the actions of the citizens of Rapture? Free will is the cornerstone of this city. The thought of sacrificing it is abhorrent. However... we are indeed in a time of war. If Atlas and his bandits have their way, will they not turn us into slaves? And what will become of free will then? Desperate times call for desperate measures. - Andrew Ryan

* * *

_

They continued searching for a Little Sister, collecting any food they found on the way. They took the bathysphere to a place called Fort Frolic that used to be the source of entertainment in Rapture. Tenenbaum had warned them to avoid a man called 'Sander Cohen' but said that there were two kidnapped girls wandering around Fort Frolic, each with a Big Daddy.

"You knows L…" Mello giggled, a bottle of 'Moonbeam Absinthe' in his hand. "I thinks that coming down here was a lot of fun. Isn't it Near? …Isn't it Matty?"

"Mello, you're drunk." Matt replied, blowing a smoke ring into the air and grinning.

"Oh shut up Matty, at least I'm not… DEADS! Like those other guys… You know the corpsies. Anyways, Tensen… Tenensub… Tensubaum says that we needs smoking and drinking and stuff to keep up our Eves." Mello said, swaggering dramatically and grabbing Matt's shoulder, looking at him with an expression so serious it was comical. "Eves Matty."

L closed his eyes, trying to remain calm, his fingers tracing the burn Mello had given him when L had tried to take the drink away from him. He didn't allow himself to dwell on the fact he had allowed the three children to come to such a horrific place with him, that Mello and Matt had now genetically mutilated themselves, that Matt had taken up smoking, that Mello had taken up drinking and that there had been four occasions when they could have lost their lives already. "Mello, if we are attacked you won't be able to defend yourself properly."

"Shh." Mello whispered to Matt, who smirked, regarding Mello as though he was watching an entertaining comedy. "He doesn't know about the Eves because he's a fucking… He's a… He's an L. Shh."

A particularly weary stare from L made Matt feel guilty. "You're right Mells, we need Eve. Mind if I have some of that?"

Mello tripped over his own feet and Matt caught him by the arm, pulling him up. Mello laughed excitedly and handed the bottle to Matt, pressing his lips against Matt's ear and speaking loudly in what he had intended to be a whisper. "Just don't give none to Ls."

Matt nodded and agreed, tossing the bottle behind him as soon as it was out of Mello's hands. Mello hadn't even noticed. His attention was elsewhere, eyes growing wide when he saw the huge stage surrounded by hundreds of red, velvet seats. "Matty look, a stage! Let's go and play Titanic!"

Matt regarded Mello, ignoring Near's glare and threw the end of his cigarette on the floor. "Nah, let's go and find those girls instead."

"That's boring though." Mello complained. "Where's my drink?"

"What drink?" Matt asked innocently.

Mello's eyes narrowed with fiery anger which he directed to his burnt hand and aimed at Matt. Luckily, Mello's movements were sluggish from the alcohol so Matt easily dodged the flames Mello had directed at him.

L moved to try and restrain Mello but it turned out he didn't need to – all the alcohol he consumed had been used up as Eve and Mello looked down, embarrassed.

"Still want to play Titanic, Mells?"

"Shut the fuck up." Mello replied irritably, rubbing his neck and avoiding L's gaze.

A rough voice from the top of the stairs startled them all out of the situation as someone walked around the steps, placing a book and necklace on the arm of each one as he sung to himself. "Jesus loves me, this I know. For the bible tells me so…"

L raised his finger to his lips and grabbed the boys, quickly steering them behind the staircase so they wouldn't be seen. The Splicer stopped singing abruptly and L gazed nervously at the ceiling. A few heart-stopping seconds passed when L heard the man begin to pace.

"I'LL FIND YOU SINNER!" The man bellowed, stopping every few footsteps. L guessed he was searching under the seats. The Splicer continued to speak to himself as he searched behind the chairs. "He died for you. For _you_, you son of a bitch!"

All four detectives looked as confused as each other. They hadn't expected to find any type of religion down here – the city that defied all religion more thoroughly than any other place on Earth.

"You ungrateful bastard. He offered you salvation AND YOU SHIT ON HIM!"

The next thing they heard was footsteps running down the stairs. "Where is he Madonna? Where is the little sinner…?"

The Splicer moved around the corner and caught sight of Near, hurling a grenade at him without warning. L only just reacted in time, grabbing Near's arm and pulling them all away from the bomb which exploded, sending shrapnel in every direction – one piece sinking itself into Near's leg. Near dropped to the floor, clutching his leg in pain as his blood seeped into his white trousers, leaving a permanent red stain. L looked down at Near in horror, swiftly bending down and picking the younger boy up off the ground. Matt ran out to face the Splicer, using his Plasmid to shock the man. As the man shuddered, electric jolts travelling through his body, Mello shot him in the face with his pistol three times until the man fell to the floor and died.

Mello stepped closer to the dead man to see if he had anything of value on his body and Matt returned to L to see if he needed help. L had already taken the First Aid kit he picked up the day before and used the tweezers to take the piece of metal from Near's leg before stitching the wound closed. Near looked away, his hands gripped into tight balls but otherwise showing no indication of the agony he was in.

"I'll carry you until you can walk on it again." L told him and Near remained silent, gripping the bear so hard that it was a miracle the stuffing hadn't burst from its body. L cleaned Near's leg so it wouldn't get infected and lifted the boy off the ground.

"Did you find anything Mello?" Matt asked.

"No." Mello replied strangely, avoiding Matt's gaze.

Matt looked at Mello for a moment, calculating his best friend. "What's that around your neck?"

"What?" Mello asked, although he knew he'd been found out. Matt walked over to him, pulling the rosary beads out from underneath Mello's jumper. Matt looked towards Mello for an explanation but the blonde just shrugged.

Matt turned away to return to L, but something on the stage caught his eye. "What the hell are they?"

Mello turned to look in the same direction as Matt, trying to see what Matt was speaking about. "What are what?"

"The fuzzy people speaking on the stage!" Matt yelled. Mello looked from Matt back to the stage.

"I can't see anything." Mello complained, an annoyed edge to his voice. He hated missing out on anything.

"…Now they're gone." Matt murmured, looking around to see if could see them anywhere else. He turned towards Mello which didn't help because Mello was looking at the redhead as though he was crazy. Matt decided to drop it, trying to ignore the feeling of agitation tying his stomach in knots.

"We should go back to the bathysphere. Near needs to rest." L said, holding the youngest detective in his arms. Mello and Matt just nodded and turned back towards the direction of the bathysphere when Tenenbaum spoke on the radio.

"_I have confirmed that there are two Little Sisters in Fort Frolic so I have left you another cure by the Gatherer's Garden machine along with some ammunition. I wish you good luck."_

L looked down at Near, deep in though. "We'll go to the machine first and then back to the bathysphere. It will save time tomorrow and stop anyone else from finding it before us."

It only took them ten minutes to reach the Gatherer's Garden machine, its disgusting tune notifying them when they were close. Again as promised, a teddy bear lay at the bottom of the machine. L set Near down on the floor, taking the gifts from Tenenbaum out from the bear and handing it to Near who clutched both toys close to his chest. Matt opened his mouth to say something insulting but the bloodstain on Near's trousers caught his eye and he thought better of it, catching himself before he started acting like a jerk again.

Inside the bear had been some more ammo, another syringe, a first aid kit and… something else. L emptied all the contents into his own bag and picked Near back up, reaching the bathysphere in less than five minutes.

When they returned, Matt locked the door behind them and L placed Near on the floor, wishing he had some sort of pillow to offer the white-haired boy. Near just pulled his bears closer to him and didn't complain. L was looking down at him patiently, waiting for him to fall asleep and Near just stared back – recognising something different about the man's appearance and immediately knowing what it was.

"What did Tenenbaum give you?" Near asked, his voice strong with determination. L winced slightly and Near knew he had asked the right question.

L didn't answer immediately as he pressed his thumb against his lips and bit on his nail, deciding which words to use and how much to tell Near. He knew that Near would most likely figure out any information he tried to hide from the younger boy so decided to be completely honest.

"There is a chance of over fifty percent that if I equip myself with a Plasmid I will be able to get all three of you out of here alive. I can't ignore such high statistics."

"Genetic engineering like this is wrong, L. The cause doesn't matter. You are meant to be righteous – you shouldn't even have considered using one."

"I do not want to use it for my own pleasure, Near. You may not believe me but I do not want to harm my body in such a way. However, keeping you three alive and rescuing the girls that have been kidnapped are more important than the state of my body and my own desires. I believe that Mello and Matt made the wrong decision, but had they not made it we may all be dead by now."

"You're turning yourself into a monster. It's disgusting. It's as though you are condoning everything that Andrew Ryan stood for when he allowed those girls to be used for Adam."

"Near, I know you are very pure-minded and I don't think you can understand this but if I had already used this Plasmid then you wouldn't have needed stitches in your leg."

"I would rather have stitches than give up my humanity." Near replied, his steady, accusing gaze making L unable to meet the boy's eyes.

L took the new Plasmid from his bag, the word 'Telekinesis' written neatly on the label, signed by Tenenbaum. She had already mixed it with Adam for him and put the combination into a syringe. She had included a note with the Plasmid, which L read for a second time.

'_Do not feel bad. It is necessary for the Big Daddies.'_

L looked down at his hands as though trying to memorise the way they were before he had to destroy one of them. He pushed the needle into his vein and injected the pale red liquid slowly, until there was none left.


	11. Heroes and Criminals

**This ends in a bit of a weird place... But because Red has some super-long chapters I was practicing writing shorter chapters with this fic and if I didn't leave it there then it would have been twice as long as the others. Mmm. Thanks for all the reviews by the way! They make me grin with delight XD

* * *

**_I couldn't believe how much things had changed since I left Dr. Steinman's office. It's like I don't even recognize Rapture no more. I hear they've been rounding up people in 'pollo Square... I asked Ryan how could he do such things to innocents. He said, 'Innocents? If they haven't chosen to defend Rapture, they've chosen to side with Atlas and his bandits. So there are no innocents. There are heroes, and there are criminals - Diane McClintock

* * *

_

L was pleased to find that the Plasmid didn't mutilate his hand in any way. Besides for the fact his fingers became stuck in a rigid position there was no other physical evidence that he had ever used the Plasmid in the first place. He was desperate to test it and learn to control it but the look of loathing etched into Near's face made him think better of this plan and he hid his hand from Near's view.

"You are meant to be our role model." Near told him, his voice not betraying the repulsion he felt.

"More importantly, I'm your guardian." L corrected him. "I may be willing to sacrifice my own life to make a point but I cannot sacrifice your lives for something as unimportant as pride."

"I hope you realise that I'm the only person in Rapture that isn't a Splicer now. You're just as much a monster as the people you've killed. You've only put me in more danger." Near argued, unable to let it go.

"Near, just shut up." Mello said, his voice level. "You don't know what you're talking about. You should be thanking us. We've saved your life twice. L did what he thought was right in the situation and you're just being ungrateful."

"I'm meant to feel gratitude that someone submitted to temptation and greed under the pretence of our safety? L is meant to be the most righteous person in the world and he just injected Adam into his body that has been regurgitated by a child."

"Well whatever, it's done now so why do you have to make him feel bad about it?" Mello argued, flicking fire from his fingertips in a way that was clearly meant as a threat.

"I'm not scared of you, Mello." Near replied, meeting Mello's glower head on.

L sighed, gripping his legs tightly. He had to stay strong for the other three boys – he knew that. But it was such a huge burden to bear on his own and if they started arguing among themselves then there was a 32% chance that one of them would die. L didn't admit to himself that he knew the statistic was much higher – he thought 32% was bad enough.

"Near, I think you should get some rest." L ordered, knowing that the strong-minded boy would be unlikely to follow his orders anymore.

Near sat with one hand resting on his knee, the other leg splayed to the side. He looked down at the bear and its hastily sewn together body with one of the eyes more lopsided than the other and couldn't comprehend the fact that girls had been kidnapped from their homes and brought down to this hell and L was telling him to rest. Near just shook his head, reverting back to silence. There was no point arguing against splicing with a group of Splicers.

"Near, why the hell are you being so difficult? Just go to sleep!" Mello yelled, moving impatiently in his seat. Near didn't reply; he just continued to stare at the bear in his hands. Mello waited, trying to keep his self-control and failing. He jumped up from his seat and stood towering over Near, annoyance lining every one of his features and his hand blazing furiously.

"Mello if you want to attack me then do it." Near said, not turning to look at the monster stood above him. Mello flexed his fingers, knowing Near had called his bluff. He still couldn't bear the thought of backing down…

L saw the exact moment when the uncertainty vanished from Mello's eyes, being replaced with hatred. L jumped up from the seat to stand in between the two rivals. His eyes glowed with the reflection of Mello's Plasmid and Mello immediately backed down.

"If I can't trust you three alone then I will make you leave and carry this mission on by myself."

There was a pause as Mello glared down at Near and then sighed, looking back up at L. "You're right. I'm sorry, L." He said simply, sitting down next to Matt.

L opened his mouth to try and persuade the youngest detective to try and sleep again when they felt the floor shudder. A familiar groaning noise echoed around the bathysphere and a hoarse voice was singing Frère Jacques with unrecognisable lyrics. L quickly rummaged through his bag when the girl stepped into their view and Mello grabbed the newspaper articles from him, shuffling through them until they found a picture that resembled the girl in front of them.

"It's Mary Elizabeth." Mello stated, looking from the image of the five-year old smiling to the dead, yellow eyes of the creature searching for a corpse.

"Well there's no time like the present." Matt said, standing up and waiting for the others to follow. L chewed on his thumb nail as he looked at the Big Daddy, trying to locate the robot's weapons and weak points.

"I think it will be reasonably resistant to fire so I suggest shocking it and shooting it until it stops working." L said in a calm voice. "Near, I want you to stay here. You're too injured to be close to that thing."

Near didn't like the thought of following L's orders but logic always overruled his emotions so he silently agreed, knowing that the others would get sidetracked if they had to protect him as well as themselves. Matt opened the door to the bathysphere and him, L and Mello stepped out. The Big Daddy gave them no recognition and the Little Sister padded on blissfully.

"Should I shock him now?" Matt asked, his fingers crackling with anticipation. L nodded in reply and Matt zapped the huge robot, whose light turned immediately from yellow to blood red. L and Mello fired at the metal suit, trying to find a weak point. After a few seconds the Big Daddy stopped shaking from the electric shock Matt had given him and barged furiously towards Mello, who dodged just in time to avoid the massive drill that crashed into the wall he had been standing against and left a huge hole, plaster crumbling to the floor.

"L, you go and get the girl!" Matt yelled, shocking the Big Daddy again as Mello fired at it, inflicting almost no damage on the guardian.

L ran over to the girl and grabbed her arm, which made the Big Daddy go seemingly insane as he made a loud, echoing yell that shook the room. The robot reached behind him and took out a proximity mine, throwing it at L with impossible speed.

L turned and used his Plasmid for the first time, catching the mine in midair. He looked momentarily impressed with himself as Mello and Matt ran from the Big Daddy so they wouldn't be caught in the blast. L pushed the bomb back which collided with the furious protector and killed him, sending him flying to the floor.

"Mister Bubbles!" The little girl cried in anguish, stumbling over to him. All four detectives walked over to the mourning child and the remains of the robot. L took the Plasmid from Tenenbaum in his hand and reached out for the girl before something caught his eye and he stopped in his tracks, frozen to the spot. The mine that L had hurled back at the Big Daddy had caused the glass of the robot's helmet to crack and shatter. But the thing inside wasn't a robot.

It was human. The man's blue eyes were wide open, tears staining his face. His skin was pasty, flaking off from lack of moisture. Wires connected the man's body to the suit and his baggy eyes were even darker than L's. Near was the first to turn away, gently holding the girl's hand and injecting the cure into her petite veins. The yellow glow her eyes emitted shrank to a spec and vanished as the cure destroyed all of the physical modifications.

She suddenly shivered, dropping the sadistic contraption she had used to drink from corpses and backing away from the man lying dead on the floor, his unseeing eyes staring at her face. She began to whimper and covered her eyes with her tiny eyes.

"Where am I? I want my daddy!" The five year-old sobbed, scared of seeing the nightmare she was trapped inside.

"It's dangerous out here." L stated, speaking to her like an adult rather than a child. "We should go back to the bathysphere – we'll explain everything there. We're going to keep you safe, I promise."

The girl sniffled wetly and nodded, clutching onto L's shirt as he led her back to the bathysphere. L was silent for a long time while he tried to organise his manic thoughts. He decided to focus on one task at a time so he looked at the girl who had stolen one of Near's teddy bears and was soaking it with her tears.

"I don't know how much you know but eight girls have been kidnapped and brought down here. I am… a detective." He said, deciding against revealing his true identity – even to a child. "We are all detectives and we have come to rescue the girls that were kidnapped. You are the first girl that we've saved and once we've rescued all of you we can take you back to your family."

L knew he could have been softer with the girl but truthfully, he was having a hard time controlling his emotions. He decided to return to the first task after completing the second – hopefully he would be much better equipped to console the girl after ridding himself of his anger.

He picked the radio up from the seat and turned it to channel eight and spoke without hesitating to announce his message.

"What part of you thought it would be a good idea to withhold the information from me that the Big Daddies are human?" L asked, a tense edge to his voice. Mello and Matt glared at the radio in agreement but Near simply looked indifferent. Near wasn't the one who had killed the person and as far as he was concerned the other's had turned themselves into monsters anyway.

"_Oh… How did you find out?" _Tenenbaum asked, a slight trace of guilt in her voice.

"That isn't important."

"_No… I suppose it is not. I am guessing you have saved one of the girls but don't trust me enough to tell me. That is reasonable enough. There are very few people in Rapture who know the secret of the Big Daddies. We tricked people into volunteering for the task and once you are a Big Daddy you are also mentally and physically conditioned to protect the Little Sisters. I did not tell you this because I sense you are very… pure. And I thought that if you knew you would not kill the Big Daddies to free the Little Sisters. I decided it would be better if you didn't know because ignorance is bliss."_

"I'm right in assuming that to stop the kidnappings we will have to destroy the Big Sister." L replied, but it wasn't a question. Tenenbaum paused for a moment.

"_I will not insult your intelligence by lying to you again. Five years ago, when I was still destroying the children, there was a family who had a daughter that had been taken to become a Little Sister. They broke the law to free her. They stole the Plasmid I was working on to cure the girls and they gave it to her and bribed Fontaine to smuggle her to the surface. They were of course found and killed but the girl escaped. However, she missed the Big Daddies so much that two months ago she found a way to return to Rapture. Fontaine was the first to find her and he has turned her into the Big Sister – programmed to kidnap girls from the surface and to stop anyone that interferes with the girls. You will have to kill her to make her stop – there is no other way now. Even if you free these girls she will just take more."_

"You are making us murder the victims." L stated with empty fury. He had allowed the emotionless wall to take over again.

"_This is our mess that we have made. Yes, the robots are victims. The Splicers are victims. They are all victims but what has happened to them… it is too late now. The only way to stop more and more victims being ruined beyond saving is to kill the ones that were driven to do it. Apologising to you will never be enough so all I can do is help you. You are right not to trust me, but I will help you anyway."_


	12. Pulling Together

_The children with their very long needles, their tuneless songs, their ghastly errands. Their ghoulish, Frankenstein fathers. But, we've all placed our hand on the Great Chain of endeavor. My hand is on it, Fontaine's is on it- We all pull it and are pulled by it. Yes, these children are an abomination. But it is not my hand alone on the chain that created them. No. Their little fingers were right there, next to mine. - Andrew Ryan

* * *

_

Another loud groan interrupted their conversation with Tenenbaum as L was immediately alert. "Mello, Matt – Come on." He said, leaving Near with Mary Elizabeth as he ran towards the source of the distressing noise.

"What do you plan to do?" Mello asked as he hurried to keep up with the oldest detective.

L didn't stop running towards the noise as he replied. "I don't know. See if I can communicate with him."

Matt looked at Mello worriedly, moving close to him and whispering. "He feels guilty about taking the Plasmid and killing an innocent man. He's not thinking properly."

"You mean he's being stupid." Mello replied forcefully, chasing L until they were standing before the huge stage and face to face with a Big Daddy and a girl they recognised as Elena Rodrigues. Her dark, wavy hair was tied back into a tight pony tail and she was missing one of her front teeth. The photograph in the newspaper had portrayed her with a huge smile and bright eyes but the girl before them looked dead – no emotion on her face as though she was carved from stone. L approached the man behind the deadly metal suit as the being with its glowing yellow face towered over him.

Back in the bathysphere, the girl rocked back and forth in an attempt to comfort herself. Under any usual circumstances, Near would have tried to comfort the five year-old that was breaking to pieces but his worried mind was miles away, calculating and whirring around the words he had spoken and L's reactions. It had been his intention to make the man who was supposed to be more virtuous than any of them feel awful for using the Plasmids like all the other monsters that infested this hell but he hadn't expected L to take any notice or react in any other way than what he thought was right. It was disturbingly uncharacteristic of L to take such drastic action without stopping to plan everything thoroughly – especially as he had just discovered that the guardians were human. All the information presented before him looked dangerous – so much so that he had even completely forgotten the state of his leg.

Near stared out of the window of the bathysphere, too agitated to play with his hair or even pick up the teddy he had dropped earlier from the floor. He turned to Mary Elizabeth, not portraying any of his feelings on his face which made it incredibly difficult for the girl to react to what he was saying.

"Stay here and whatever happens don't leave this bathysphere or you could get killed. Do you promise?"

The little girl looked up at him terrified but nodded jerkily.

Now that L was standing next to the victim of lies that was forever trapped in his own mistake, he didn't know what to do for the best.

"Can you hear me?" L asked uncertainly. The Big Daddy did nothing but stare at him, his radar processing the man's movements to see if he was going to pose a threat to the Little Sister he was assigned to. It wasn't a man inside the suit anymore – anything other than robotic calculations had been deleted from his brain. L wanted to do this _his_ way – not Rapture's way. He needed to be better than the Splicers. Near was right. L had never seen any emotion on the pale boy's face that compared to the look of disgust he received as he'd told Near the truth. That alone was enough to make him doubt what was best in the situation.

He had thought that he was doing it to protect everyone and wouldn't become a monster but he had just killed a man that was as much a victim as the girl he tried to protect. The worst thing was that Tenenbaum had almost convinced him that killing all these innocent people was the right thing to do. He had been so close to believing her. If the Big Daddy hadn't interrupted her persuasion then he may not have hesitated to kill another. So to regain the humanity he felt he had lost, he took out the rope he had found in the helicopter and stored in his bag and proceeded to try and wrap it around the huge, glowing protector.

"L, what the HELL are you doing?" Mello yelled.

The sound of Mello's voice was enough to make L realise the stupidity of what he was doing. If Mello had shouted to him only a second earlier, it might have been enough to stop L from leaping towards the Big Daddy – who had of course calculated the movement as an attack. If Mello hadn't shouted at all, L may not have hesitated, his focus temporarily distracted from the danger in front of him. L saw the light change from yellow to red a nanosecond too late.

A huge drill collided with L's head, swatting the man away like a fly and sending him crashing into the theatre seats – rendering him unconscious. Matt and Mello shared a worried look as both of their hands glowed. Now they had no choice but to fight and they were severely unequipped.

"MELLS, MOVE!" Matt roared as the Big Daddy sent a proximity mine hurling towards Mello. Mello jumped out of the way just in time as the mine landed on the ground, making it dangerous for them to move anywhere near it. Heavy boots shook the theatre as the Big Daddy stomped towards its enemy – the blonde boy lying on the ground.

Matt moved quickly, shocking the Big Daddy before it could get within melee range. "Try to shoot its face!"

"An _angel_!" Elena sighed croakily, running towards L with her needle pointing towards his heart. Mello was trying desperately to crack the glass of the Big Daddy's helmet so he could aim for a head shot and Matt hadn't heard the Little Sister over the sound of Mello's gunshots as he gripped his crowbar and attempted to move closer.

The girl was in killing range, her podgy hands holding the needle high above her head. She took in a deep breath as she prepared herself to stab the man's heart when she was scooped up from the floor, a white-sleeved arm gripping her tightly and pulling her away. It was at that point the electric shock wore off the Big Daddy.

The Little Sister made an unholy noise, hissing and gargling between screams as she clawed and scraped at every part of Near she could reach, twisting and wriggling in a way that made it almost impossible to cling onto her. The Big Daddy turned furiously towards Near – holding a Little Sister was so forbidden it was hard for the guardian to compute and he completely ignored Mello and Matt, his sights set on the most perilous and also defenceless threat that was in physical contact with his Little Sister.

The girl squirmed in Near's arm, biting and kicking him which re-opened the wound on his leg. He winced slightly but he had a far more important task to focus on and pushed everything else out of his ingenious mind. The Big Daddy growled in a way that Splicers had learnt to recognise as death. Mello fired his Plasmid at the Big Daddy but it ignored it, still racing towards Near, ready to push himself off the ground and push his drill deep into Near's stomach. Near could do nothing but stare wide-eyed at the pouncing threat. Matt electrocuted the Big Daddy, making it fall in mid-air.

It would have been impossible for Near to focus on the Little Sister in his arms while the Big Daddy was about to gouge through his organs, but if he had he would have been able to stop her before she plunged her needle deep into the boy's leg. Twice. Three times.

Near let out a tiny sigh of pain as he dropped the girl and fell to the ground – unable to support himself, let alone the writhing girl in his arms. The girl giggled in a way that would have broken a grown-man's heart as she plodded towards L for the second time. Matt plunged his crowbar into the Big Daddy's helmet; not stopping until it was sticking out of the inhuman man's head.

Near tried to prop himself up to reach the girl but she was too far away. She had just reached L when she stopped in her tracks as though suffering from shell shock and dropped her syringe on the floor, walking shakily over to the mess of metal and flesh lying on the ground – no light shining from the helmet.

"M-mister B?" The girl croaked, her voice filled with devastation. "Please wake up!"

"I can _smell_ the Adam!" A voice rasped from the upper tier of the theatre. Mello glanced nervously up to the Splicer who luckily hadn't spotted them yet. He raced towards the Little Sister and covered her mouth, ignoring her bites and muffled squeals of protest. Mello gestured to Matt, ordering him to carry Near back to the bathysphere who was surrounded in a slowly growing pool of his own blood. Near clutched onto Matt's stripy jumper as he was lifted from the ground in an attempt to deal with the pain.

Mello kicked the syringe far away from the girl in his arms pulled her over to L's body, crouching out of view behind the seats. He was hoping he would be able to hide long enough for Matt to return so one of them could carry the girl and the other could carry L but when he heard a female Splicer accompany the first, closely followed by another, he knew that would be impossible. Especially once they noticed the Big Daddy broken on the ground. Mello routed through L's bag as quietly as he could to find the cure which was luckily close to hand. He hadn't wanted to heal the girl and her first clear thought to be one of terror but he had no other option as he pierced the girl's skin and injected the liquid into her veins. The small girl fell back against him slightly, before her eyes fluttered and grew wide with fear. Mello didn't remove his hand from her mouth as he bent down to whisper in her ear.

"There are some monsters upstairs that are trying to get us and we need to escape. We have a safe place just around that corner but you have to stay very, very quiet or they'll find us. Do you understand?" He asked, trying to put as much comfort into his tone as he could manage whilst being quiet and struggling with his dominant, stubborn nature. Being polite wasn't something that came to him without effort.

The girl nodded, silent tears leaking from her eyes as Mello heaved L up onto his shoulders – trying to stand underneath the deadweight – and grabbing the girl's hand. As Mello ran with the girl and the air whipped around them, L began to stir. Luck was on their side as they reached the bathysphere completely undetected by the Splicers.

Matt locked the bathysphere door as soon as Mello and the girl had walked inside. The red-head had wrapped his belt around the top of Near's leg like a tourniquet but already blood was leaking through his soaked trouser leg and onto the bottom of the sphere.

L groaned groggily, his head lolling from one side to the other as Mello set him down on the cold, metal seat. It took L painful effort to open his eyes and prop himself up slightly. Mello was already tending to Near's leg, weaving surgical thread through the wounds with fast precision. Near lay down with exhaustion, partly from shock and partly from the fact that it had been quite a while since he'd last slept. Elena moved over to Mary Elizabeth and wrapped her arms around the slightly younger girl with offered friendship. Without a word, Mello moved Near to the corner of the bathysphere and tossed one of the bears towards him, ignoring Elena's jealous frown. He pulled his plain black jumper over his head dropped it beside Near, allowing him to use it to either keep him warm or rest his head on. Near didn't want to insult Mello's pride so didn't offer him any thanks and was too tired to even glance at the blonde boy. When Mello turned away he found Matt sitting with his knees brought up to his chest and his hands wrapped tightly in his own hair.

"Mister…" Elena whispered timidly to L. "We need to go to the toilet."

L's eyebrows rose, pulling him out of his stupor and focusing his attention on the inconvenient request. "I'll take you outside and make sure no Splicers are around." He muttered, after taking a moment to figure out what the girls were actually asking him.

Mello sat down beside Matt who didn't even move. The blonde hesitated as he looked at the torn figure beside him, before routing through Matt's bag. "I know what will cheer you up…"

'_O rise, Rapture, rise…'_ Played quietly in the background and Matt let out a soft noise that sounded somewhere between a laugh and a sob. When he looked up at Mello his eyes glistened wetly and this alarmed Mello more than it would if Matt was seriously injured. He became rigid, completely lost. Mello had never needed to comfort anyone before and frankly, anyone that did need comforting wouldn't have gone to Mello unless the rest of the orphanage had been blown apart.

"I think I'm a bad person, Mells." Matt said, his voice thick and cracking slightly. It took Mello a moment to remember that he was still frozen with a look of fright on his face. He slowly wrapped his arms around Matt, cringing slightly at the close contact and the fact he had no top on. Matt clung onto him and Mello shifted uncomfortably, as good at being intimate as he was at being polite.

"You're… Uh… You're not a bad person Matt. I mean I know you went a bit crazy when you were bashing his face in…" Matt's nails dug into Mello's back. He'd only just started speaking and he'd said the wrong thing. Tact and advice were not his strong points. Mello pulled out of the awkward embrace so that Matt could see the sincerity in his eyes. "Look, down here nothing anyone does is right. That doesn't make you a bad person. You saved all our lives and anyway, it's not like you did it for fun or Adam or anything. It would be impossible to get out of here alive without killing a shitload of people." He stated. He could have perhaps found a better way to phrase it but he was glad he'd managed to get his point across at all. At that point the timid girls shuffled back into the bathysphere and Mello looked up at L, seeing the small gash on his face.

"How come you were barely hurt?" Mello asked.

L looked down at Near and the blood stain on the floor and repressed a shudder. "I assume that Adam helps the body heal faster." He muttered, relocking the door and crouching down beside Near, balancing on the balls of his feet. Matt dried his tears on the back of his hand and pulled a cigarette out from his bag so he could restore his Eve.

"Can you give me a light?" He asked, holding the cigarette between his lips.

"Yeah, sure." Mello replied, engulfing his fingertip in flames and moving over to Matt.

That was when Elena and Mary Elizabeth let out the loudest and most shrill screams the boys had ever heard.

"MONSTER! MONSTER!! LET US OUT, LET US OUT!" The girls screeched, backing away from Mello and clutching onto each other, hardly stopping for breath.

"No, calm down. Be quiet. It's okay – he isn't a monster." L said in a rush, trying desperately to console the hysterical girls but they were already past consolation.

A far-away voice roared manically. "It's _my _Adam! Mine!"

The boys looked nervously out of the window as a single Splicer ran towards them, followed by a small horde. The girls wailed loudly, which only succeeded in alerting the Splicer's to their whereabouts as they all turned their heads at the same time, their attention brought to the small metal sphere with the four detectives locked inside.


	13. Maternal Instinct

_What makes something like me? I look at genes all day long, and never do I see the blueprint of sin. I could blame the Germans, but in truth, I did not find tormentors in the Prison Camp, but kindred spirits. These children I brutalized have awoken something inside that for most is beautiful and natural, but in me, is an abomination... my maternal instinct. - Bridgette Tenenbaum

* * *

_

"L, if we keep these girls with us then we're all going to end up dead." Mello yelled over the noise of the children. L pressed his thumb against his lips as the Splicer in the lead started attacking the window to the bathysphere with a crowbar, closely followed by the others. He frowned as he stared out at them as though they were nothing more than an irritating delay. Eventually he sighed to himself as he reached for the radio, turning the dial to channel eight.

"Tenenbaum we're inside the bathysphere but the girls have attracted a lot of Splicers."

"_As long as you stay hidden then you should be fine although I wouldn't risk leaving the bathysphere for the rest of the night."_

"Well, they're already trying to break through the window." L replied, emotionlessly. There was a pause on the other end of the radio.

"_You are in Fort Frolic, ja? I will come to help."_

Near tried to sit up but winced as the movements ripped his wounds.

"Well, I suppose now we'll find out if we can trust her or not." L mused, chewing his thumb nails slowly as the Splicers screamed and tore at the bathysphere windows. The girls cried loudly, clutching each other dramatically. A vein throbbed in Mello's head and he was trying his hardest not to grab the girls by the throat and strangle them until they shut up. He sat down on his hands against the wall of the bathysphere to avoid temptation, shivering as the cold metal touched his bare skin.

"Can you hear a whistling noise?" Matt asked, his head cocked to one side. Two seconds later the bathysphere shook from side to side as half of the Splicers were torn apart by a huge explosion. The battle that took place outside was spectacular. A beautiful woman with dark brown hair pinned back into a formal, classy style and pale skin stood on a balcony. By the time the remaining Splicers had turned towards her she had released a swarm of bees, sending most of the Splicers running for cover. One of the Splicers that ignored the bees whipping around their bodies had the same Plasmid as L and lifted an oil drum that the four detectives hadn't noticed earlier telekinetically, aiming for Tenenbaum. The woman in a deep purple, velvet, expensive-looking coat whipped a pistol out of her pocket before he could blast it towards her and shot the oil drum, covering the Splicer in burning oil. One of the two remaining Splicers caught Tenenbaum's shoulder with his shotgun but she didn't even falter as she took out a small, red ball and threw it towards female Splicer holding a knife.

The latter Splicer immediately went crazy and began attacking the deformed man with the shotgun, hacking him so frenziedly that he didn't even have a chance to shoot her before she had eviscerated him. She screeched furiously and began to race towards Tenenbaum who jumped down from the balcony and ran towards the enraged woman head on, hitting the woman with a baseball bat so hard it seemed impossible as the Splicer's head flew from her body and bounced back off a wall. Tenenbaum brushed away a stray hair that had fallen out of place and L tipped his head to the right as he made several different conclusions about the woman.

"Matt, you can unlock the door." L muttered. Matt's eyebrows rose but he didn't argue with L's decision as he zapped the mechanism and the door to the bathysphere flew open. Tenenbaum took one more moment to preen her hair before stepping inside the sphere and locking the door behind her herself.

"It is nice to meet you at last." Tenenbaum grinned, displaying a set of perfect pearly white teeth. L's eyes widened almost unnoticeably as he nodded in agreement. Near stared at Tenenbaum blankly, inwardly disturbed that he was so close to the woman that had created this madness.

"I did not realise there were four of you down here." She smiled, her eyes moving over Mello and Matt and stopping at Near. She looked down at his bloodstained white clothes and her eyes grew wild, her mouth opening slightly in shock. She swiftly bent down to him and put her fingers underneath his chin as though she was examining him, tilting his head to various angles and turning back towards L, glowering. "How could you bring him here, he is just a child!" She yelled, fury in her eyes. Near's eyes were open with shock, wider than they had ever been. He wasn't used to his personal space being invaded and aside from his mother, he had never been within one foot of another female – let alone the most immoral and monstrous woman alive that was apparently concerned about his welfare. L looked shocked at being scolded for putting a child in danger by the woman who had created the Little Sisters and looked at Mello and Matt as though they could make sense of the situation. They seemed just as stunned as L.

"It was Near, Mello and Matt that discovered Rapture in the first place. I hadn't planned to bring them down here but they insisted and it wasn't my place to stop them. Besides, there was no way for me to know that I would have found Hell down here."

Tenenbaum opened her mouth, her finger pointed disapprovingly at L as she was about to come up with many arguments and thought better about each one. She eventually closed her mouth and stepped away from the blood-stained boy – who felt immediate relief – and stood up straight. For the first time she appraised the odd-looking man before her and he rubbed the leg of his jeans with his foot uncomfortably, staring at her as though they were having a serious blinking contest.

"…Do you have a problem with your back?" She asked, unable to stop that from escaping her lips after holding back so many other comments she wanted to voice. That one seemed the most polite.

"I don't think so. I'm comfortable like this. I often have to sit in a position that curves my spine otherwise my deduction skills are dropped by roughly forty percent." He said, babbling slightly. The beautiful woman nodded slowly.

"I see… And what is your name?"

"Ryuzaki." The man replied, instantly using the name he had decided upon after entering Japan.

"You do not look Japanese."

"I'm a quarter Japanese." L smiled slightly at outwitting the woman, even if it was barely enough to be considered a victory. Tenenbaum frowned slightly as she saw the competitive streak flash through the man's dark eyes.

"And what are you going to do about him?" She asked, pointing towards Near. "Are you just going to let him bleed to death or wait for a Splicer to find him?"

"We've done all we can for him with the first aid kits." L replied simply, already guessing the woman's next move. It seemed Near had already guessed too.

"I'm not using Adam. It's immoral." He stated simply, before the woman could even suggest it.

"You would rather die than use some Adam?" She asked, raising one of her eyebrows.

"Yes."

"…I admire that." The woman answered, crouching next to him again with a small smile. "If we had all been as strong as you then things may not have come to this. I'm sure your father is proud of your decision…" She added, trailing off. She was so used to living in Rapture where it was common to choose the appearance of your child before it was born – which was how they managed to get so many girls – that she didn't stop to wonder how a man with black hair could have a son with white hair – or blonde or bright red for that matter.

"We're all orphans. Including Ryuzaki."

"Oh." Tenenbaum replied. She had never really been in touch with her sensitive side and couldn't think of anything to say. She turned towards the girls that had been hiding behind the seat and smiled warmly at them, never looking more like a mother figure. "What are your names, little ones?"

"I'm Elena and this is Mary Elizabeth." The eldest girl smiled toothily.

"Such pretty names for such pretty girls." Tenenbaum cooed, shocking all the boys surrounding her. "Here, I have brought you some presents." She took two bright pink lollypops out of her pocket and handed one to each of the girls as she stroked their hair. L stared at the pink sugar, hypnotised.

"Did you bring one for me?" He asked. She turned and looked at him, utterly confused. She was about to insult him when she saw the mesmerised look on his face and realised he was clearly addicted to them.

"I will… leave you one in the next package. What do you plan to do with the girls?"

L's guard was instantly back up and he sat hunched on the seat, his hands resting on his knees. Tenenbaum could see why his was constantly so hunched and her eyebrows rose in something similar to horror as he pressed his thumb against his lip and rubbed his toes together. She noticed his bare feet for the first time and for a moment she wondered if he was clinically insane.

"There is a… seventy-one percent chance that we can trust you. No… it's more like seventy-two percent. If we kept the girls with us eventually we would have too many people to hide and protect and some would get seriously injured and traumatised, if not killed. To claim that I don't trust you now would just be my stubborn nature focusing on the twenty-eight percent chance that you are trying to fool us in some way and gain our trust although not a lot of the reasons behind that theory make much sense. I suppose it would be safer to allow you to look after the children until we have rescued all of them but…" He said, raising a finger and staring straight at Tenenbaum. "I want a map that leads us to where you are hiding."

Tenenbaum stared back, her face blank with disturbed wonder. "You are a very strange man." She said in her thick, German accent, pulling a map out of her pocket and handing it to him. "I created a safe house for the girls. No one can get to them there."

"I see. So they'll be perfectly safe with you?"

"Yes. When you have saved them all then contact me and I will turn off the security I have set up and you can collect them. If you ever need me, just get in touch." Tenenbaum said, looking down at the eccentric man staring up at her with huge eyes.

"I will." He replied, slowly biting his thumb nail. Tenenbaum turned back to the little girls and bent down.

"I have a safe place for you to stay and it's full of little girls like you two. Would you like to come with me? No monsters will be able to get you there, I promise."

The children nodded eagerly, taking her hand. Matt unlocked the door for her and she moved to leave but stopped for a moment, turning back to L. "Thank you for saving my girls." She whispered, her voice full of emotion, and planted a kiss on his cheek before regaining her composure and leaving the bathysphere without looking back. L stared after the woman as she turned the corner and continued to stare into space after her absence, bringing his hand to his cheek and admiring the crimson red lipstick she had left behind. He was brought back to reality when the bathysphere door closed with a bang.

"L. Stop blushing." Mello scolded, folding his arms. Matt smirked.

"Mello must be mistaken. I'm not blushing." L replied, wiping the lipstick from his cheek.

"And don't refer to me in third person! I don't see why you're in such a good mood all of a sudden."

"Mello, you are very intelligent. I'm sure that statement isn't true." L replied with a small smile. L stood from his sitting position and moved over to Near himself, finally getting a chance to assess how much damage had been done to the boy's body.

"_There is only one thing that Splicer's get excited about."_ An endearing, official voice spoke from the radio. Andrew Ryan. _"And that is Adam. I should have known that Fontaine's foolish idea would have brought attention to my city and of course you have come to rescue the girls. Do you know the tool that all wickedness is built with? Altruism. You came here to rescue some children and now you will die down here. However, as a business man I will make you a deal. If you kill Fontaine for me, I will let you leave. Think about it. It shouldn't be a difficult choice to make."_


	14. Genetic Arms Race

_I begged Mr. Ryan to hand Fontaine Futuristics over to Atlas' boys as a peace offering, but the stupid sod won't listen to reason. 'Stead he's just splicing his mob up, giving them more and tougher Plasmids. There's an arms race on here in Rapture, but it's not about who can build the best guns and the biggest bombs. It's about who can become less of a man and more of a monster... - Bill McDonagh

* * *

_

"I think now would be a good time to review our plan before we move on." L stated, taking the squished and somewhat unrecognisable piece of cake from his bag and staring at it mournfully as he began to peel the cling film off.

"Well we can't accept Ryan's deal." Near said monotonously, holding Mello's jumper out for him to take back.

Mello snatched the jumper from Near without meeting the pale boy's eyes and pulled it over his head, happy to lean against the bathysphere without it freezing him. "Anyway, he was obviously bluffing. If Ryan had the power to stop us leaving then he wouldn't let us go if he had a gun pointed to his head. He's too obsessed with parasites or whatever finding his city." Mello added.

"Shouldn't we try to lock Ryan and Fontaine and everyone up for breaking the law? We can't let them carry on destroying people down here…" Matt asked twirling an unlit cigarette between his fingers.

"I'm not happy with the idea of allowing them to remain free down here but I doubt a normal prison could hold them and that is assuming we could even catch them. I have to agree with Andrew Ryan to an extent – no one can find out about this city." L answered, tearing pieces of cake off between two fingers and dropping them into his mouth.

"What are we going to do about the Big Daddies and the Big Sister?" Near asked, trying to move into a more comfortable position without damaging his leg further. L looked away from the injured boy guiltily.

"We don't really have a choice. They don't stop fighting until they are killed and there is no way to reason with them. Our primary goal is to rescue the girls and get out alive so we'll have to destroy them." L replied, his face showing how much he hated the idea of murdering innocent people.

"_I have news." _Tenenbaum spoke through the radio, her voice sounding slightly mournful. L picked up on the tone immediately and turned towards noise. _"You kept saying that eight girls had been kidnapped. Well I have searched everywhere for them but I can only find seven. There are only seven new Little Sisters – not eight."_

"Could one of the kidnappings have been a coincidence?" L asked the younger three boys who had researched the case a lot more thoroughly than he had. Matt shook his head.

"No. All of them reported sightings of the Big Sister."

Silence hung over the four boys as they realised what this meant. They were so wrapped up in Rapture that they hadn't considered the possibility that the girls were in danger. L sounded more tense than usual as he pushed the button of the radio. "Where should we go next?"

"_There are four girls in Neptune's Bounty. That is one of the places Fontaine operates from so I am guessing that is why so many are situated there. The other Little Sister is in Arcadia. I'll leave you enough Plasmids to save the girls in the lower wharf but you can just follow the map to the machine. You can hide under the docks while you fight the Big Daddies if you wish – just be careful of the mines. There are pipes all over Rapture leading to my safe house that the girls are able to crawl through so they will not be in any danger."_

The detectives wasted no time saving the girls after hearing that one of them may have died. Matt hacked the bathysphere, taking only ten minutes to do so, and once they arrived they immediately set out to save the girls, leaving Near behind in the bathysphere due to his injury. It didn't take them long to find the Gatherer's Garden machine and Tenenbaum had already left them some gifts. L's mouth watered at the sight of the shockingly pink lollypops and he popped into his mouth as they hunted for the Big Daddies.

All the way through Mello was struggling with an internal dilemma. He hadn't told L and he didn't even wanted to show Matt what he had found at the machine whilst they were rummaging through the gifts of ammo, sweets and cigarettes. In his pocket was a completely new type of Plasmid called Winter Blast – something none of the detectives had witnessed so far. He had that power right in his pocket and he knew exactly what he wanted to do with it – he was already plotting how to do it without anyone noticing in time to stop him injecting it. He knew he was doing it for the right reasons but deep inside the dark corners of his mind he had other motives and he wondered which motives were stronger. He knew there was no point in having a discussion about it because the others would yell at him for even thinking about it but if he was doing it for the right reasons… Was he allowed to be the judge of what was right and wrong when he had a darker purpose too, no matter how much he buried it?

He knew Near would never agree. L would say no. Even Matt might think he was going too far. The Plasmid continued to press against his legs, burning a hole in his mind so that he was unable to concentrate and only just managed to dodge one of the mines that were aimed at him.

As he ran low on Eve and his hand blazed dimly he desperately needed more and became more irritable as he drank some 'Old Tom Whiskey' he found lying almost empty on the ground. Why shouldn't it be his decision to make? He was the only one not under the pretence that what they were doing wasn't absolutely vital. They could die at any moment – it didn't make sense not to try and gain all the strength they could. If other people were going to disagree just for political correctness then_ they _were the deluded ones.

They saved their final girl in Neptune's Bounty and made there way back to the bathysphere. Mello had made his decision. He was going to do it. He just needed to find the right time…

Near tried to stand as they entered and managed to prop himself up using the wall of the bathysphere and his good leg. "Have you saved them all?"

L heaved an exhausted sigh as he sat on the seat in his usual position, his hands resting on his knees. "Yes. All four girls are now with Tenenbaum. Now we just need to go to Arcadia."

"Let me check your leg." Mello offered, bending down and pulling up the leg of Near's trousers so he could see the wounds he had sewn together. Matt narrowed his eyes slightly. He knew Mello didn't hate Near but he definitely didn't like him enough to care about his injuries. Matt opened his mouth to come out with a comment that would annoy the hell out of Mello and hopefully injure the blonde's pride but Mello spoke first.

"Near, you're going to hate me more than anything." Mello said, his tone filled with resolve and fiery determination as he located the vein at the back of Near's knee.

"I don't understa–" Near began but stopped dead, his body becoming rigid as he stared down at Mello, his eyes wide with horror and disbelief as he felt a needle pierce his skin. Mello stared back completely guiltless as the youngest boy began to shake, his balance faltering as the Plasmid coursed through his veins, trying to get to his brain.

There was a nervous beat as Near hoped beyond anything that it had been some sort of sick joke on Mello's part. Then he felt the pain.

Near dropped to the floor, his hair covering his face, hiding his small, innocent frown from everyone's view. It was disturbing to watch. Even L had shouted out in pain but Near just stayed still on all fours, as silent as a corpse. Mello would have preferred it if he'd shouted rather than this. Slowly, Near's left arm started turning purple. The boy began to shake even more from the pain but still refused to give any sign to Mello of how much he was suffering. A thin layer of ice began to blotchily cover his arm as it turned a slick frozen blue colour. He felt a sharp, agonising twinge in his wrist and instinctively his fingers balled into a tight fist as shards of ice broke through the back of his hand which was so cold that he didn't even bleed as the transparent icicles stabbed through his flesh. A small sigh of anguish escaped his lips as he looked down at the alien form of his hand so barbaric it didn't even look human to him. And it was _his_ arm.

He was a Splicer. Inhuman. Monster.

The wounds on his leg knitted themselves together, completely healing him and allowing him to stand without needing to cling onto something. It took him three minutes before he found the will to move. He looked up at Mello, his face blank but his eyes filled with more emotion than had ever been there before. He stared deeply at Mello's face, glaring at him with so much burning hatred and anger that Mello physically flinched away from the cold boy on the floor.

Near stood up finally and moved past Mello, making sure he didn't touch the blonde at all as he stepped out of the bathysphere.

"Near, what are you doing?" L asked.

"Now I can't go back." Near answered, his voice flat and empty. "I have to stay in Rapture until I get killed."

Mello grabbed Near roughly by the arm and dragged him back inside, throwing him heavily against the wall.

"Mel, chill out." Matt warned, worriedly. He watched Mello's every move, ready to stop him if he looked like he was going to attack. L watched the situation intently too, reading Mello's every emotion and secretly finding it more interesting than worrying.

"Are you fucking stupid?" Mello yelled. "Of course you're coming back!"

"NO." Near shouted back, stunning Mello slightly. L actually jumped. "You turned me into a monster, Mello, even though you knew I would rather die than use one of those Plasmids. You can't force me to go back up to the surface and I _won't_ because I'm too dangerous. Things from down here should never be mixed with the surface, especially splicing. Just because you have the morality level of a psychopath it doesn't mean I share your values. You might have turned me into an inhuman creature that can only be used as a weapon but that doesn't mean I have to use it like that. I'm staying here and I'm not going to kill anyone no matter what they do to me."

"Near…" L began softly, not wanting to interfere with the argument. "You have to go back to Wammy's House."

"No I don't." Near replied. "Let go of me, Mello."

Mello was struggling to keep his temper under control, the word psychopath that had issued from Near's lips whirring over and over in his mind. "You're being completely ridiculous Near. Your wounds were going to get infected and you couldn't move anywhere so if you didn't take any Adam you would probably have died."

"That doesn't justify anything, Mello. You destroyed my body so that you could bring me down to _your_ level. You weren't happy when Matt had one and you didn't and then you weren't happy that I was the only human left. Don't pretend you were doing it to heal my leg." Near replied, a fraction of his anger colouring his voice. He then lowered his voice to nothing more than a whisper that only Mello could hear as he stared into the older boy's eyes. "Loser."

Mello's fist collided hard with Near's jaw, sending his head crashing into the metal bathysphere wall. Matt jumped up to grab Mello and hold him back but Mello's hand was already ignited with rage and he was moving it towards Near. More of a reaction than conscious will, Near raised his hand in defence and coated the hot-headed blonde in ice as Matt jumped back.

Stood in the bathysphere was an ice statue of Mello, unable to move or speak. Near wasn't sure if he could even breathe. Matt shook his head in disbelief, his finger's crackling with agitation as he saw the frozen figure of his best friend. "I'll kill you Near." Matt muttered, flexing his fingers as he turned towards the pale boy. L jumped in the way, stopping Matt from shocking Near and trying to talk sense into him.

"Mello isn't dead. You can hear his teeth chattering. Just take care of him when the ice melts." L ordered, turning towards Near and hesitating as he reviewed his options. "Just be careful with Mello because he'll shatter if you pull on him."

He sighed as he turned towards the radio and moved it to channel eight, pushing the button in.

"Tenenbaum, is there any way to remove the Plasmids we've taken?"

"_Ja, it is similar to the Plasmid we give the girls. It isn't well known because it was only used in tests – no one actually wanted to take it of choice."_

"Well, we'll need those before we leave." L sighed with relief, even allowing a small smile to creep over his face. Cold water dripped from Mello's left hand to the floor as the ice surrounding him began to melt. Near absentmindedly wondered what Mello would do once he was defrosted but he didn't really care. Deep down he believed that Mello had deserved it.


	15. Fontaine's Army

**Thanks again to everyone for the reviews ^^ Hmm... short chapter. Oh yeah, that reminds me, I have a poll about chapter and story lengths on my profile, so it'd be helpful if you checked it out :) It just started bugging me when I edited it and realised how _short_ they are. But... I'll stick to my plan to write a short-chapter story and carry on. So, here it is.

* * *

**_Fontaine knew our blokes were coming. We were done over. Them splicers come screaming out the woodwork. Burping fire, spitting ice... demons out of the Bible they were. Never seen nothing like it. It wasn't a business he was building, it was an army. - Bill McDonagh

* * *

_

Mello sat as far from Near as he possibly could, glaring at the white-haired boy as he held a burning hand out in front of himself to dry his clothes and warm himself up. Matt sat next to Mello for support, looking almost as pissed of with Near as Mello did. Near wasn't even paying attention to them, he was too busy staring at his arm with disgust. L had taken on the task of hacking the bathysphere since he was the only one not involved in the civil war taking place between them. L would never admit that it would have been slightly faster if Matt had hacked it for them and eventually they got off to a jittery start, heading towards Arcadia.

Arcadia was nothing like they expected. It still looked beautiful. It was an indoor park, full of trees, flowers and benches.

"What are they?" Matt asked, staring at the benches as they stepped out of the bathysphere.

"…What?" Mello asked, still sullen from his fight with Near.

"The people! The fuzzy people! Can't you hear them?" Matt said, wide-eyed, still staring at the benches as though some people were sat on them. The other three looked at the bench hard, trying to see what they were missing. Eventually they all turned to Matt as though he was going mad. "Well… They're gone now." He murmured, routing through his bag. "And I'm out of cigarettes."

"But surely you have a full amount of Eve?" L asked, his head tilting to one side.

"I just like them, okay!" Matt yelled back defensively, irritated that no one else had been able to see the ghosts and now he had run out of things to smoke. He stormed ahead slightly, leaving Mello to raise an eyebrow and follow behind his best friend, when they stopped in their tracks.

A slender robot with one glowing red light and strange shaped feet was stood as though it was searching for something. They knew it wasn't a Big Daddy – it looked female. They all realised that it was the Big Sister at the same time but unfortunately, Matt was stood right in front of her. The kidnapper spun around and let out a deafening screech as she raised her metal hands and Matt got pushed backwards into a wall without even being touched, instantly knocking him unconscious.

Matt was their best weapon against the robots and now he couldn't help them. Mello turned without thinking and ran towards Matt, gaining the attention of the Big Sister.

"Mello, turn around!" L yelled, running towards the boy as he looked for something he could telekinetically throw at the Big Sister. Mello turned quickly, his hand raised, and covered the Big Sister in flames. She backed away slightly, screeching once more before fleeing.

The three conscious detectives froze, confused. They had been used to Big Daddies fighting to the death but she had just run away almost immediately. They looked at each other before Mello continued to walk towards Matt, closely followed by L and slowly followed by Near, who had learnt how to deactivate his Plasmid whilst L had been hacking the bathysphere so he could almost pretend he was still human.

There was dried blood on Matt's forehead but L couldn't locate a cut so he guessed it had been a shallow cut and Matt had already healed. Two minutes later, Matt began to stir. He sat up slightly, trying to remember what had happened.

"Damn, did I miss the fight?"

"No, she ran away." Mello smirked, moving in the direction of the next Gatherer's Garden machine.

Mello led the way accompanied by Matt whilst Near and L lagged behind slightly, looking at the park and trying to imagine how it had been before Rapture had destroyed itself. Suddenly, there was a deafening noise.

_BRRRRRR-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA_

Light poured on them and as they turned to the source they saw a security camera directed right at them but they were a moment too late. Sirens tolled loudly around them and Mello fired at the camera and destroyed it in the hope that the sirens would stop but they didn't. L grabbed Mello's arm, pulling him into a small hole made of stone, almost hidden beneath a bush. Matt and Near were already inside and Matt pulled down a lever on the side of the wall – making the noise stop instantly. They stared at each other for a moment, wondering if it was safe to come out of hiding.

Matt poked his head around the corner of the archway, seeing some metal objects lying on the floor that hadn't been their earlier. "I'm going to see what they are." He muttered, creeping out of the hole.

Mello, L and Near looked around for the first time. The ground was covered in water and there were strange markings on the wall, along with burning objects on spikes.

"Someone is in here." L whispered, looking at a faint shadow on the far wall, coming from behind what appeared to be an altar. "It can't be a Splicer, otherwise it would have attacked us by now."

Whatever it was stayed absolutely motionless, making L second-guess his judgement, when Near stepped forward, trying hard not to step into the water. "Hello?" He asked, making his voice soft and polite. The shadow twitched and L and Mello followed behind Near, comforted by the fact that whatever it was didn't plan on attacking them.

Behind the altar was a small child. Her mousey brown hair was soft and wavy and her eyes were… a normal shade of dark brown. She looked up at the three men in fear but managed to speak in a strong voice, her small hand point to the exit. "A Spider Splicer stole all my Adam. She went that way."

"L, Mello, why don't you go and find Matt." Near ordered, without turning to look at them. Mello glared at the back of Near's head and even L looked unhappy at following someone else's orders but to avoid Mello starting a fight in front of the strangely still-human girl he placed a hand on Mello's shoulder and steered him away.

Near sat on the floor next to the girl in his usual position, a sweet, childlike smile playing on his face. "You're Louise aren't you?"

The girl hesitated for a moment, staring at Near and looking at his left arm. "Yes. Who are you?"

"It's nice to meet you, Louise. My name is Near. I'm working with three other people called L, Mello and Matt and we're here to rescue you and the other girls that were kidnapped. Can I ask why you're hiding and how you're still human?"

The eight year-old girl's nose wrinkled with pride as she beamed, her whole face glowing. "The Big Sister can only see through the window at the front of her helmet. She took the girls into a room one at a time and it took her about three minutes to take each one so when she took the fourth girl I escaped and hid but I think she's been looking for me."

"Yes, we found her but she ran away. Anyway, how do you know about Adam and Splicers?"

The little girl giggled sweetly, a sound Near hadn't heard since leaving Wammy's House. "It was just easy to work out. I could hear the conversations other Splicers were having so I figured out what had happened."

"Oh. The other girls seemed scared out of their mind, screaming about monsters." Near told her, so that she knew it wasn't normal for a child to be so calm.

She frowned, confused. A small line appeared at the top of her nose as she thought very hard. "But that's silly. Then they would find you and you'd get killed. And monsters don't exist."

Near smiled again – the girl's elated mood was catching. "There is a woman called Tenenbaum who has a safe house here in Rapture. She's on our side and we only have one girl left to save now, she is looking after the others. When we've saved Chantal we'll come and get you and take you home. Is that okay?"

The girl looked deep in thought, her innocent face was soft and expressive. "Do I have to climb through the pipes?"

Near's eyebrows rose, shocked at how much the girl had figured out for herself. "Yes, but it will be a lot safer for you that way and we won't be long – the other girl is here in Arcadia too."

Louise nodded slowly and then sighed breathily. "Alright then Near. As long as you promise to come and get me." She said, pointing a finger at him as though he'd be in trouble if he didn't.

Near twisted his hair around his finger, looking at the girl with a small smile. "I promise."

He held out his hand for her to take and she grabbed it, swinging it happily as he stood up and guided her to the exit. L, Mello and Matt were staring at the two of them as they walked out of the crevice, the three eldest detectives surrounded by flying robots with bright green lights.

"Oh, did you hack the Security Bots?" Louise smiled excitedly, meeting the blank stares of the boys as they looked up at the robots, having not known what they were called.

"…Yeah." Matt answered, confused.

Louise looked around, still smiling. "Didn't you want to hack the Security Camera too? Then it targets the Splicers."

Mello folded his arms irritably, being the one that shot the camera in the first place. L noticed the tension, even if Louise seemed blissfully unaware as she continued to hold onto Near's hand.

"_Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?" _A voice spoke from the radio. It was the first voice they had heard – the same one that spoke when they dismantled the first Security Camera. It was laced with a thick Irish accent. _"I know you're the one saving all the girls and I know I have no right to ask for this but… I have a family here and I need to get them to safety. This is no place to raise a little boy. My wife, Moira and son, Patrick are trapped right now inside a Submarine so I know they're safe but I need to get them out of here. I wouldn't ask if I wasn't truly desperate."_

L brought his thumb up to his lip in thought as the other boys stared at him.

"It could be a trap." Mello stated bluntly, still annoyed from Louise's comment.

L deliberated for a moment before pushing the button in. "I have no reason to trust you."

There was hesitation on the other end. _"I know that. Hey, I'm not saying I'm a basket of roses, I've done some shocking things but my boy – he's only a child. They could lead a better life up there, even if it's without me. I don't want him to die here. Surely you can understand that. If it makes you feel better I won't even attempt to meet you or follow you. They're trapped inside Neptune's Bounty. I won't contact you again but I'm begging you, you've got to save them."_

L looked at Mello and Matt, clearly wanting to discuss the issue but not wanting to say anything that would upset Louise. Near recognised L's behaviour and bent down to the girl's level, still keeping hold of her hand. "We've got to go and save Chantal now. Will you be okay going to Tenenbaum on your own?"

"Yep!" The girl grinned pulling Near into a tight hug. "Remember, you promised." She reminded him, holding her finger out again in warning before locating the nearest pipeline and jumping into it.

"Looks like you've got an admirer, Near." Mello scoffed, still stood rigidly with his arms folded across his chest.

"Yes, it does." Near answered simply, issuing a blank, agitated look from Mello who was annoyed that Near had completely missed the insult.

"Well, it looks as though we have a boy to save as well." L sighed, continuing to move towards the Gatherer's Garden machine.

"He might just be trying to trick us, L." Near said, looking at the black-haired detective.

"At this point we don't have much of a choice in the matter. Aside from our instinct to remain alive we have absolutely no evidence that suggests he is lying and if there is a boy trapped down here, we would definitely have to save him. But first… We need to save Chantal."


	16. Rapture Changing

**Sorry for the wait, it was my 18th birthday on Saturday so things have been pretty hectic :) anyway, on with the story!

* * *

**_Rapture's changing, but Ryan can't see the wolves in the woods. This Fontaine fellow... he's a crook and a proper tea leaf, but he's got the ADAM, and that makes him the guv'nor. He's sinking the profits back into bigger and better Plasmids, and building them Fontaine Poorhouses... more like Fontaine recruiting centers... 'Fore we know it, Bloke's gonna have an army of splicers, and we're gonna have ourselves a whole heap of miseries. - Bill McDonagh

* * *

_

Saving Chantal was straightforward. They worked together amazingly as a team – despite the rivalry within it – and fighting the Big Daddies was such an undemanding task since the guardian could only focus on one person at a time and the Security Bots helped considerably. It was easy.

Getting Chantal to crawl through the pipe was not.

"I'M NOT DOING IT!" The girl screeched, kicking and clawing against L who was holding on to the girl to stop her from running away. Mello looked like he was seriously considering threatening the girl into it but Matt knew exactly what Mello was thinking and held onto the blonde's left arm lightly in restraint.

"There could be SPIDERS in there!"

"Yes, but spiders won't kill you whereas most of the people out here will. It probably isn't even far to the safe house."

"But I'm scared of the dark! I'M NOT GOING!!"

"Do you not realise that every other girl climbed through that tunnel with no problems at all and they are all fine? If they had stayed here they would have… been very hurt by now." L said, trying to argue his case from a different angle. The girl refused to listen. "I want Mister Bubbles! Let me go!!"

After another five minutes of the girl screaming and complaining, Mello snatched the radio from L and quickly spun the dial to channel eight. "Tenenbaum we saved Chantal but there's no way in hell she's going to climb through the pipe."

"_I don't like leaving the little ones unless it is an emergency."_

"I'M NOT GOING THROUGH THE PIPES! I WON'T GO THROUGH THEM! AAAAAARGH!" The girl screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to aim for L's shins.

"…_Alright I will come and get her. Otherwise you will all be found by the Splicers. Try to make her be quiet."_

"Problem solved." Mello said, tossing the radio back to L before towering over the girl. "Shut up because she's coming to get you so you don't have to climb through the stupid tunnels."

The girl frowned and her whole face scrunched up bearing a slight resemblance to a pug. She broke free from L's grip and aimed a ferocious kick at Mello's kneecap. He dodged it before she managed to make contact and moved as though he was about to hit her when Matt pulled him back roughly by the arm, to L's relief. The raven-haired detective had thought he was going to have to try and restrain Mello while he was having a temper-tantrum, in which case L would have most likely been burned.

It took Tenenbaum over half an hour to reach them but she looked just as pristine as she had the first time the boys had seen her. She held out a hand to the little girl after handing her a lollypop. Before she left she turned to L, handing him an identical lolly.

"There is only one way out of Rapture." She stated ominously, keeping a tight grip on Chantal's hand. "I am trying to figure out how to reach it. When I do I will draw you a map."

"I was planning on leaving the same way we came." L replied, his head tilting to one side.

Tenenbaum shot him a strange look before replying. "No, it worked at first but now the second rail has been destroyed so even hacking the bathysphere will not work – it can only go one way unless you have one of two keys. One belongs to Ryan and the other is a stolen copy owned by Fontaine. There is another bathysphere that Fontaine used in secret to smuggle things down from the surface but it is hidden in a place called Smuggler's Hideout. If I am correct, I think it is located near Fontaine Fisheries but I need to discover the way inside. I will keep in touch."

With that she turned on her heel and quickly ushered the girl beside her away without looking back, nervous at leaving the girls all alone – even with the Big Daddies to protect them.

"Patrick and Moira next!" Matt grinned, his enthusiasm back. "Then it's back home where we'll see Roger's happy face ready to welcome our return."

Even L smiled at that, knowing how Roger was mostly grumpy and unhappy about everything. "For you three at least. After this I have to return to the Kira case."

"You'll catch him though." Mello prodded, hidden worry behind the statement.

"Yes, I'll see him hung. I promise." L replied, ruffling Mello's hair slightly. Now that they had rescued all the girls there was definitely a lighter atmosphere around them, knowing that in a few days they'd return to normality.

Since none of them had the desire to sleep or even felt the need to rest they didn't need a break in between fighting their last Big Daddy and hacking the bathysphere to go and rescue Patrick and Moira from a submarine – granted they didn't know where the submarine was but they didn't want to try to contact the man again.

As they made their way towards the map of Neptune's Bounty they noticed the lobby was eerily quiet, aside from the whir of the Security Bots. They knew Rapture was a fairly quiet place anyway but you could usually hear some form of crying or whispering or blatant screaming that told you which areas to avoid.

"Well…" L began as he stared at the map, his voice echoing around the room. "We'll probably have the best view in the Wharfmaster and we might be able to see where we're going. We might even be able to control the submarine from that room so I think we should go there first."

The others nodded, happy with L's decision. They set off through the lower wharf and past the Gatherer's Garden machine where Mello had found the Plasmid he forced on Near. Near looked from the machine up to Mello who avoided the youngest boy's eyes. Neptune's Bounty was still silent as they climbed up the stairs to the upper wharf. L told the other boys to hold onto their weapons and Mello gripped the pistol tightly in his hand.

They edged slowly towards the staircase that would lead them to the control room when Matt slowed down, eventually coming to a stop. "Wait."

The three turned back to Matt who was staring up at a black and white poster of two ghostlike figures dancing romantically.

_Patrick and Moira_

_A MUSICAL_

_THE STORY OF LOVE AFTER DEATH_

"It's a poorly planned trap." L mused, biting his thumbnail. "That means he was probably planning to ambush–"

L didn't get any further because shrieks of laughter echoed from the staircase and their Security Bots went crazy, zooming towards the source of the noise and firing at their targets. L ordered for the boys to run and they all turned around, racing as fast as they could back to the bathysphere.

They were already too late. The Bots had been destroyed and breeds of Splicers they had never even seen before were chasing them. Several were crawling on the ceiling, throwing hooks towards them but luckily missing. Two kept disappearing and reappearing in random places. The worst thing was that the Splicers were faster than them.

There was nothing for L to throw at them and none of the Splicers had any types of grenades or mines that he could fire back. Mello managed to hit one of the Splicers on the ceiling who fell to the ground but he couldn't look back for long enough to hit another. Matt tried to shock one of the Splicers that kept disappearing but they were far too fast, vanishing as soon as he looked at them.

"Near, you have to freeze them!" L yelled as they ran down the steps, almost tripping over them.

"No." Near replied, trying to push himself to run faster.

"You don't have a choice. If we reach the bathysphere we'll be cornered. We'll never be able to close the door in time."

Near met L's eyes almost pleadingly. He didn't want to attack them with his Plasmid. That would make him exactly the same as them and it went against everything he stood for and everything he'd ever been taught was right. They were already on the lower wharf and they could see the entrance to the bathysphere station. L continued to hold Near's gaze patiently as they ran, placing the decision into Near's hands.

Near knew they had to stop running otherwise they'd all die and the girls would be stuck down here and everything would have been a waste and it would be all his fault. And he'd die a Splicer.

He stopped and turned, willing his Plasmid to return. It didn't take him much effort as he felt the painful twinge in his wrist that made his fingers tense into a ball as shards of ice sliced through the back of his hand. He summoned as much power as he could and aimed it at the crowd, managing to freeze all the Splicers standing. Mello took out his pistol to fire at the statues and Matt grabbed the wrench, running towards them and smashing them so that they shattered to the ground. Matt hurried to destroy them all when Mello ran out of ammo and turned his attention to the teleporting Splicers.

"Near, you have to freeze them. Otherwise we'll never hit them." Mello ordered roughly as he used the pistol as a melee weapon instead. Near's expression was blank and repressed as he scanned the room for them, trying to judge where they would reappear. The three Wammy kids had relied on L so much that they completely forgot he was defenceless, with nothing to throw and no weapon to protect himself with. A Splicer reappeared before him in a burst but Near froze it and L kicked it with his foot so hard that the Splicer broke to pieces.

They all spun around, searching for any remaining Splicers and sighing with relief when the room was once again silent. "In hindsight it would have been a good idea to ask Tenenbaum if she had heard of th–" L began, but was cut off mid-sentence.

There was one Splicer they had failed to see – a Spider Splicer hiding in the corner of the room. She was stood directly behind L, her hooked hand sticking through his body, ripping his organs and making him turn so white he already looked like a corpse as his mouth opened and closed in shock and agony. The Splicer grinned evilly, ready to slash L's body open. Near didn't hesitate, he raised his hand and coated the Splicer in ice, leaving Matt to smash the woman to pieces. L dropped to the floor on his hands and knees, the hook still sticking from him and blood pouring from the gash in his abdomen.

Mello instantly scooped up the radio, changing the dial to number eight so quickly he almost got it wrong. "Tenenbaum, Ryuzaki is very seriously injured, he has a hook sticking through his stomach." Mello said in a rush, turning pale at the sight of his idol half-dead on the ground.

"_Get him to the bathysphere!" _Tenenbaum yelled in response, realising the urgency of the situation. _"You need to bring him to me."_

Near placed his left hand over L's stomach, freezing it slightly to numb the pain and stop the heavy flow of blood gushing from the wound. He did the same thing on the man's back, stepping back slightly to give L space to move. The eldest detective paused for a moment, battling between making the injury worse or looking foolish. He settled for the latter, crawling as quickly as he could towards the bathysphere. Despite the fact that it was a twenty-second walk it took L two minutes to reach it, having to stop for Near to re-freeze the jagged tear in his stomach.

L collapsed onto his side as soon as he was far enough into the bathysphere for the door to be closed behind him.

"Where do we go?" Mello asked, determination in his voice.

"_My safe house is in Olympus Heights. I will get things ready to heal him."_

By the time Matt had hacked the bathysphere and they had arrived at the safe-house L was unconscious and struggling to breathe.


	17. Mozart of Genetics

_That's quite a little monster Fontaine's dug up. When she does speak, which is almost never, her accent is thick and grating. Her hair is filthy and she seems to wear the same mustard-stained jumper day after day. But I've got to hand it to Frank: Tenenbaum is the all-time diamond in the rough. No formal training, no experience... but put her in front of a gene sequence, and she's Mozart at the harpsichord.

* * *

_

"You are lucky these weapons are made from cast iron." Tenenbaum said, swiftly bending down to pick the unconscious L up with speed and strength that was noticeably greater than that of an average woman. She carried L through different rooms, past little girls playing hopscotch and doodling with crayons. Mello, Matt and Near walked behind Tenenbaum, their nervous gazes never leaving L's emotionless face. "It means I will be able to easily remove it from his body without causing more damage."

She reached her office and placed L down on her desk so that he was lying on her side. Her armed changed from normal to icy cold and she grabbed hold of the curved end of the hook, freezing it to make it more brittle before snapping it off. She yanked the other end out of his body, frowning slightly when his blood poured onto her work surface. She opened a draw and retrieved a shimmering metal scalpel.

"It is a shame that Steinman is not still sane. If he was working on this body then there would not even be a scar." She said as she took another item from out of the draw – a syringe full of blood red Adam.

She injected the Adam into L's arm and wasted no time in making his wound larger with the scalpel.

"…What are you doing?" Matt asked, the only one able to speak. The other two boys stood stiffly with wide-eyes as they watched the woman, disturbed.

"I need to be able to see his organs so I can repair the damage. My needle and thread are in the cabinet." She ordered, and Matt moved to retrieve them. Mello had never been paler as the woman delved her hand into L's body and pinched his organs together as she stitched them closed. Luckily it had only pierce his intestines and not his stomach so the stomach acid hadn't leaked and corroded any of his other organs. Just as Tenenbaum had repaired the last tear in his large intestine L's eyes fluttered open.

"Do not move." She ordered, her voice full of authority. As she began sewing his skin back together. Fear was written all over L's face as he made the realisation of what was going on, then he promptly closed his eyes, making his face relaxed and blank. Only once did he flinch. The youngest detectives wondered what he was thinking.

When Tenenbaum had finished healing his front and back she took another Adam-filled syringe from a drawer and injected it into L's arm for a second time.

"You will have to be careful because I have had to give you a high dosage of Adam for your body to heal but you will not feel any pain you will also–" She glared furiously as L tried to use her chair to prop himself up and snapped it in half. "–have increased strength so don't do anything stupid like break my chair."

L didn't reply to this but stood up, pausing to see if he felt any different. Thankfully he didn't although he wasn't sure if that was just due to the amount of Adam he had. "Thank you."

"It is not a problem although now my office is a wreck." She complained, looking at the blood stains on her desk. L just smiled sweetly at the woman as she returned her gaze to him. "So what do you intend to do now?"

L brought his thumb up to his lip, still smiling. "Well, we have to make sure both Ryan and Fontaine won't notice us leaving. I wonder… could you handle the Big Sister by yourself?"

"Yes, I will do my best but first I want all the girls out safely, along with the four of you. I do not want them to be around in case I fail and she takes them back." Tenenbaum answered. "I have located the bathysphere that you can escape in and drawn a map for you to find it."

L picked the map up between his thumb and middle finger, causing him to receive another strange look from Tenenbaum, before he handed the map to the others, having memorised it himself.

"Please be quiet." L ordered, taking the radio from Mello. "What is the channel for Andrew Ryan?"

"He is number one." She answered as L spun the dial.

"Andrew Ryan?"

"_Have you come to a decision?"_

"Yes. I know Fontaine is the one behind this so give me his whereabouts and I'll take care of him for you."

"_You made the right decision. Fontaine can be reached through the Proving Grounds. I'm sure you will be able to find him yourself."_

"What happens when I kill him?" L asked, to make his offer sound more realistic. Andrew Ryan chuckled at the other end of the radio.

"_Then I will let you go."_

"Alright. It's a deal." L answered, switching the radio off and turning towards the others. "Now we need to make sure that Fontaine isn't going to stop us from leaving."

"But Fontaine hasn't contacted us, so he might not even know we're here." Near argued, curling his hair between his fingers.

"No." Mello said, turning towards Near. "He has contacted us. The Irish man was Fontaine."

"Fontaine was from The Bronx." Near reminded him. "He didn't have an Irish accent."

"Anyone can fake an accent. Who else would trick us into saving some made up people and then ambush us? Besides, Fontaine would have noticed us rescuing the girls so the most vital thing for him to do would be to make contact with us and lure us into a trap where he could kill us, he wouldn't just sit back and do nothing while we undid all his work."

"Atlas is Fontaine?" Tenenbaum asked faintly, a distant look on her face.

"I suppose so." Near answered. L watched the whole argument with his head tipped to one side, grinning slightly. The Adam had a good effect on him. Tenenbaum just shook her head incredulously, grabbing a box of cigarettes from her drawer. Matt stared at her jealously and she caught the look in his eye.

"What do you smoke, Nico Time or Oxford Club?" She asked, lighting the cigarette herself as her arm changed instantly from ice to fire with a tiny movement in her fingers.

"Either." He grinned.

"Here." She replied, tossing him a box of Oxford Club cigarettes. "I don't want you to complain that I gave you the cheap brand."

"I've come up with a plan!" L stated. "We'll use Mello, you have the best voice for this."

"For what?" Mello asked, unsure whether he should feel proud or alarmed.

"Fontaine thinks Adam is more important than anything. Simply say that you've decided you like the power and that Ryan is offering you freedom if you kill him. Then ask how much Adam he will give you to kill Ryan."

Mello twirled the rosary beads between his fingers as he ran through different ways he could attack the conversation in his head. "Alright."

Tenenbaum told them the channel they needed to speak to Fontaine and L twisted the dial around before handing it to Mello who jumped up onto the desk, getting into the role as he lent back slightly, taking his last bar of chocolate from L's bag and tearing off the wrapped so he could bite a chunk off with his teeth. He pushed in the button to speak and sounded relaxed and confident – playing the part perfectly.

"Fontaine isn't it?" Mello asked cockily, to Tenenbaum's horror.

"_Who's this?"_ Fontaine answered.

"I'm the guy that's going to kill you." Mello grinned, biting off another chunk of chocolate. L watched Mello with fascination. Tenenbaum shook her head, holding her face in her hands.

"_Is that right, kid?"_ Fontaine asked, almost laughing on the other end.

"Well at the moment I have all the Little Sisters – and you know what that means. Ryan made me an interesting offer actually. Your head for my freedom."

There was a long pause. _"Why are you telling me this?"_ Fontaine growled.

Mello paused, smirking to himself as he traced the edge of his chocolate bar with his tongue. "Because I've changed my mind. Now I've made this deal with Andrew Ryan it will be easy to get close to him. How much is his head worth to you?"

He could almost hear the conspiratorial smile in Fontaine's voice. Mello knew that he'd won. _"Hell, if it's money you want kid I have a whole room full of it."_

"No, I'm not interested in money. I'm taking about Adam."

"_Of course." _Fontaine laughed, his voice sounding relaxed. _"I should've known. Alright, kid, we've got a deal. You get me Ryan's head. If you live then it's worth two-thousand Adam. You won't get that much from your Little Sisters."_

"Make it three-thousand. Then we've got a deal." Mello demanded, lying back on the desk.

"…_You drive a hard bargain kid but if you come back alive, then I'll give you the Adam."_

"Sounds good. Expect to see me soon." Mello grinned, sitting up as he switched the radio back onto neutral and handed it to L.

"Mello that was…" L began, biting his thumbnail. "Perfect."

"Okay, now we have to take the girls to the bathysphere in Smuggler's Hideout. I will escort you there because you will have to lose your Plasmids now. When you have left I will hunt down the Big Sister." Tenenbaum said, moving over to a locked cabinet and producing three syringes full of dark green liquid.

"We'll need four syringes." L corrected and her eyes flitted towards Near. "It wasn't his choice." L added and Tenenbaum nodded in understanding as the boys took a syringe each and injected themselves. The process was thankfully completely painless and Near looked like he couldn't be happier as his arm returned to normal. Matt and Mello were the only two who hesitated before injecting themselves so they could memorise the way their arms looked with their Plasmid.

When they were done, Tenenbaum walked through her office door, calling for the girls. Chantal glared at Mello as she walked up to them but Louise skipped past the other girls, throwing her arms around Near's waist. Near smiled in response as she reached for his hand and talked about how excited she was to be going home.

It took them forty minutes to reach the huge bathysphere that would take them to the surface, and with Tenenbaum accompanying them, the girls were on their best behaviour. "I will miss you girls but I'm sure your families will be so glad to have you back. Be good for these boys, even if they get very annoying, okay?" Tenenbaum smiled, ruffling Jennifer's hair. She straightened herself up to face the detectives that had saved all the Little Sisters and hugged each one in turn. "This is goodbye. I will not see you again and I will not be able to contact you. Thank you so much for saving my little ones. I will never forget your kindness." She said, pecking L on the cheek as her cheeks turned a rosy shade of pink. Matt thought he saw a tear in the corner of her eye but she looked away, heading back to her safe house. "There are many other Little Sisters that need to be saved – ones that have never been to the surface before and need to stay with me. I will take care of them… Enjoy your freedom."

With that she walked away as Matt began to hack the bathysphere to get the door open. It took him five minutes but the door finally swung open and the girls began to step inside, giggling amongst each other.

The detectives took one last look around Rapture and instantly wished they had just got into the bathysphere and left.

Red light covered the room as the Big Sister circled from the ceiling and landed elegantly on the floor, finally having the chance to acquire her target. She pushed Near to the floor, wrapped a metal arm around Louise and sprinted away.


	18. Functional Children

_The children must remain functional to be effective producers of ADAM. I had hoped we could place them into vegetative state, so they would be more pliable. I find being around them very uncomfortable. Even with those things implanted in their bellies, they are still children. They play, and sing. Sometimes they look at me, and they don't stop. Sometimes they smile. - Bridgette Tenenbaum.

* * *

_

"Near, Matt, start hacking the bathysphere and look after the girls. Mello, come with me." L ordered, already running after the kidnapper. Mello sprinted alongside him, his blonde hair flying as he ran.

"Do you have a plan?" Mello asked, pushing himself to run fast enough to catch up.

L reached into his bag without slowing down and tossed Mello some ammo which the blonde caught, slipping it into the pistol that he'd kept in his pocket.

"That's all I've got. You have six shots Mello, so use them well."

As they ran into the next room they found the Big Sister flailing madly with Louise on its shoulders.

"She has a sensor on the top of her head!" The little girl yelled as she jumped off the robot so Mello could fire at it. It was unfortunate that the Big Sister was only interested in Louise – it made it much more difficult for Mello to her.

Now that they could get a better look on it they could clearly see the sensor but also realised how twisted the design was. On the Big Sister's bag was a large cage clearly designed to kidnap the girls and it had pink ribbons tied around the bars. Mello knew there was no point aiming for the glowing red window – the protective gear around the head was far too thick – but it was dissimilar from a Big Daddy in one important way. The Big Sister _wasn't_ primarily a robot. Her joints were fastened into place with metal bolts and straps but her arms and legs were exposed with no protective gear at all.

Mello aimed for the Big Sister's knee perfectly and she buckled, falling over in her attempt to catch Louise. The Big Sister hesitated before making the decision to stand so Mello seized the opportunity and fired another bullet into the Big Sister's arm which was strapped to a rifle with a short sword attached to the end. The Big Sister let out a huge screech and jumped up, turning towards Mello and running towards him with a limp. Mello aimed for the sensor but the Big Sister jumped away at the last moment, leaving the glass cracked slightly.

It had seemed to have an effect on the Big Sister as her movements were slightly slower and less well-aimed but it also made her more ferocious as she mistook Mello for L and charged at him instead.

In a sudden movement Louise was on the Big Sister's back, a crowbar in her small hands. The Big Sister realised that Louise was in her grasp again and was about to turn and run when Louise smashed the crowbar directly through the sensor, causing the glowing red light to flicker and die. L caught the little girl before she fell to the ground.

"Did I do well?" The girl beamed, her nose wrinkling ecstatically. L looked utterly shocked.

"Yes… You did very well." He answered, his brow furrowing in confusion. "Mello… are you ready to go back to the bathysphere?"

Mello nodded, taking one last look at the Big Sister, blood leaking down her leg, before moving past L and Louise and back to their escape.

Louise skipped ahead, bursting to tell Near and Matt – but especially Near – how she had helped and fought the Big Sister.

"We're finally going back." L smiled as Mello tossed the pistol to one side.

"Mm. I need to wash my hair."

"Is that the first thing you think of?" L asked but Mello dropped to the ground, unconscious.

L stopped walking and turned back to Mello, who had fallen asleep on the floor. L bent down to lift the sleeping boy into his arms as he walked the short distance back to the bathysphere.

When he got there Near looked exhausted as Louise talked him through everything that had happened and Matt was fiddling groggily with the wires. Five minutes later the door closed behind them and Matt slumped against the control box, fast asleep. Near was struggling to stay awake and L smiled secretly to himself as he handed the youngest boy some emergency sugar cubes he had kept at the bottom of his bag.

As Near sucked on them his eyes immediately became alert as a wide smile set over his face, to Louise's delight. The bathysphere moved upwards through a dark shaft and Louise pulled a piece of paper from her pocket.

"Look! I drew this when I was with Tenenbaum and I was waiting for you to come back."

The drawing was perfect. She had drawn L, Matt, Mello and himself and he couldn't spot any faults at all. She had shaded the bags under L's eyes perfectly and had captured the irritated set of Mello's face along with Matt's relaxed attitude. "This is amazing." Near smiled and Louise's nose wrinkled cutely as she grinned back at him.

The bathysphere reached the surface after six long minutes and they were situated outside an empty docking bay. The sky was pitch black and L turned his mobile phone on, noticing that it was two forty-seven a.m. He dialled a number and held the phone to his ear using two fingers.

"Watari."

"You're safe!" Watari exclaimed on the other line. "Are you all safe? You've been gone over a week."

"Yes, we have rescued all the girls and we are all in good health. Can you arrange for a large helicopter to come to this location? The other helicopter will need to be moved but I can't reach it from here."

"Very well, I'll trace your location and fly there myself. I shouldn't be longer than half an hour."

"Thank you. Please bring cake."

"Of course." Watari replied and L hung up.

Mello and Matt were sat on the dock looking completely exhausted and wondering how Near had so much energy. L's face gave nothing away.

"I'm _bored_." Chantal complained. Mello didn't even have the strength to glare at her.

In the distance they could see the faint outline of a lighthouse.

Either L and Near didn't seem to feel different or they were very good at hiding it but Mello and Matt felt slightly out of place. Perhaps it was because _they_ had taken the Plasmids out of curiosity rather than necessity but as they looked around the quiet bay that was completely oblivious of Rapture and its Splicers and Little Sisters and genetic mutation, they felt quite disconnected.

Twenty minutes later and they heard the loud noise of a helicopter and felt the icy breeze as Watari lowered the aircraft down to a level that they could reach. He'd brought blankets, chocolate, cake, Matt's Nintendo DS and Near's favourite robot along with some colouring books for the girls. L smiled warmly, comforted by Watari's presence. He lifted the girls into the helicopter one at a time and the four detectives jumped in after them.

"Did you not manage to catch the kidnapper?" Watari asked as they each took a blanket and L grabbed a piece of strawberry cake.

"It's an incredibly long and interesting story but it will have to wait until we're in Japan." L answered, shovelling the cake into his mouth without hesitation. Matt and Mello sat curled up on the floor and wrapped themselves in a blanket each. Mello sucked on the corner of his chocolate bar as he watched Matt playing Pokémon Platinum. The girls put their blankets together to build a den at the back of the helicopter, which from the outside looked like someone had used blankets to cover up an infestation of molehills. Louise was the only girl colouring in her book quietly in the corner, using the crayons to mix colours together.

Mello knelt up so that he could mutter in Watari's ear. "We're taking Chantal back first. She goes to Saint Lutgardis Orphanage." He said, before sitting back down next to Matt. Watari simply nodded and headed towards Belgium.

Five hours later the three Wammy kids had fallen asleep and L and Watari were on there way to take Louise home. Louise had curled into a ball underneath the pile of blankets left by the girls and had fallen asleep.

When they hovered over her house both L and Watari looked at each other – the house had been blocked off with police tape. Watari landed the helicopter in a nearby field and called the local police station.

"Yes… Yes I understand. Thank you." Watari said, pressing the 'end call' button. L looked at him. "It seems that Louise's father died two years ago and her mother committed suicide three nights ago."

L stared at him blankly for a moment as he registered the information. "Very well, I'll tell her the news."

He stepped over to Louise and gently tapped her shoulder. She blinked tiredly and looked up, grinning when she saw L's face. "Am I back home now? Can I say goodbye to Near?"

"Actually I have some bad news. It seems your mother tried to rescue you but got lost at sea."

Louise sat up as L sat next to her, his knees brought up to his chest. The girl's eyes grew wide with understanding. "She killed herself, didn't she?"

L chewed on his thumbnail as he looked at the girl who was far too mature for her age. "Yes. I'm sorry. Louise… Mello, Matt and Near belong to an orphanage for people that are very, very intelligent. I think you meet the criteria needed to be accepted so if you like, you can go back with them."

"Okay… Thank you." She answered, her soft features looking lost.

"You'll need an alias though, because nobody uses their real names at this orphanage. What would you like to be called?"

The girl bit her lip as she thought about this, a small smile appearing on her face. "Can I be called Linda?"

L nodded with a smile as Watari turned towards him. "Back to the orphanage?"

"Yes, thank you Watari."

* * *

**Thanks to everyone who read this story! The** **epilogue will be up shortly but this is the end! A big thanks to everyone that reviewed, added this to their alert or favourite list or sent me a private message. (Yes, Frank Fontaine you still live, ready for Jack's arrival so no worried there.) If you like Death Note, my next fanfic (and last for a while) is a rather twisted one but it's a tonne of fun to write. I may post the preface as a teaser before it's complete but... I'll see. Oh, and if you haven't already - please check out the poll on my profile ^^**


	19. Epilogue

A hunched detective stood alone in a hotel room in Japan, staring out of the window.

This time he wasn't looking for Kira. He was looking past the buildings and surroundings of the city, imagining the sea. Imagining a tall lighthouse standing alone where no one would ever find it. Below the surface of that lighthouse, thousands of metres deep, was a city as bright and beautiful as the one he was staring at through the pane of glass. Looks could be so deceiving… There lived Andrew Ryan, Frank Fontaine, Bridgette Tenenbaum and so many other geniuses that had disappeared from the world in the mystery known as 'The Vanishing' – a case that had always failed to be solved.

L rubbed his neck as he thought of Rapture. The brightest, ugliest and most dangerous case he had ever worked on. The Kira case just couldn't compare.

A face. A name. Two things Kira needed to kill. Somehow… it just didn't seem as important as before.

"_Ryuzaki, the task force have asked to meet you face-to-face."_

A face.

"That's fine." The detective answered into the microphone, not tearing his gaze away from the view. After seeing mutilated children, insane people willing to kill their own loved ones for power and naïve people fooled into being forever encased in a metal suit, a man murdering criminals was nothing. L thought nothing could disgust and perplex him more than Kira. He had been so wrong.

*

"Okay, what's wrong?" Mello demanded of his best friend. Mello was lying on his stomach, surrounded by books and homework. Matt was sat on the bed next to him, doodling around the edges of his notebook and generally looking miserable. He glanced towards the door and back at his book, ignoring Mello's question.

Mello sighed in irritation, locking the door to the room they shared and turning back to Matt, sitting next to him on the bed. "Do I have to beat it out of you?"

Matt deliberated the question before putting his pen down and propping himself up against his headboard, absentmindedly tracing the veins on his arm. "This place is so dull."

Mello caught Matt's subconscious movement and rubbed his own hand in response. "You miss Rapture?"

"Yes." Matt answered, his left hand curling into a ball. "But I don't want to go back. Does that make sense?"

"No." Mello answered, shaking his head. "But I feel the same way."

Matt looked towards their small window, staring into the distance. "It's a shame that place got so screwed up."

"You were a complete jerk at one point though." Mello said, moving back over to his own bed.

"Yeah and you almost hit a little girl." Matt reminded him, smiling slightly. Mello smirked to himself.

"Maybe we should've just kept the Plasmids."

Matt laughed, remembering the lightening that had once come from his hand. "Can you imagine explaining it to Roger?"

There was a weary knock on their door and the handle twisted, unable to open the door due to the lock. Matt and Mello caught each other's eye and tried not to laugh as Mello moved to unlock the door. "What is it Roger?"

Near was stood behind the old man with a blank expression as Roger twisted his head around the door frame to make sure Matt was in the room too. "I need you two to come to my office. You each have a package."

The three boys followed Roger into his office and he closed the door behind them, sitting at his desk and gesturing to the three boxes in front of him. Mello grabbed his parcel first and opened it, snorting at the contents inside.

A bottle of Arcadia Merlot and… a card that enabled him to receive an unlimited supply of Cadbury's chocolate for free.

Near opened his next, finding a pink fluffy teddy bear that he had seen in Tenenbaum's safe house and a loyalty card for Hamleys – the biggest toy shop in the UK – allowing him to buy whatever he pleased.

Matt grinned as he opened his present, finding a pack of Nico Time cigarettes and a similar loyalty card to Near's and Mello's that he could use in any video game store. His smile faded slightly when he found the lighter in the bottom of the parcel and he met Mello's eye, thinking it had been a lot more fun when Mello lit his cigarettes for him.

"May I ask why L has given you alcohol and cigarettes?" Roger asked, frowning unhappily.

"No." Mello answered, receiving a disapproving look from Roger and ignoring it.

"Very well. He also left a note addressed to the three of you." Roger replied, pushing a piece of paper forward.

_Dear Mello, Matt and Near,_

_Hopefully you will read this note before you open the gifts. If you do, then make sure you don't open the packages in front of Roger – he won't be very happy._

_I hope you like the gifts. They are to thank you for working with me on the case and mostly doing as I asked you. I enjoyed working with the three of you. If you were wondering what my souvenir of the case is: I have kept the radio, although I haven't modified it to make it work from up here._

_Also Matt, I will need Rapture's anthem from you at some point… purely for forensic purposes of course._

_Give Linda my regards._

_L._

_P.S. You have 24 hours to destroy this note._


End file.
